Fight or Flighty
by Celino
Summary: Hiccup is struggling with his new role as Chief of Berk- he's so busy, he only has time to fly with Toothless at night. Good thing he does, as it leads him to discover a new island and a new Night Fury, while a new threat arrives from across the ocean...
1. Discoveries

Author's note: Hello everyone! I watched 'How to train your Dragon 2' and absolutely loved it. So much so, that I'm thinking of what I'd like to see, namely another Night Fury. So, I had a couple of ideas and started writing. Now, I'd like to share them. I hope you enjoy reading, please leave a review at the bottom.

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Hiccup revelled in the feeling of freedom as he and Toothless sped across the sky. The wind rushing past, the moist clouds swirling around them like fog before dipping below the cloud line to see the whole ocean spread out before them, the full moon's glistening reflection on the ocean surface like a silver coin. Who knew how many secrets the world still held, just waiting to be found?

It had been three years since his father, Stoic the Vast, gave his life to save Hiccup from death, and still, while Hiccup tried every day to live up to his father's legacy, he still felt he wasn't doing the job justice. Every day, he wanted to ask for his advice on some problem, but of course, Hiccup sighed, he wasn't there to ask...

"Are you alright, son?"

A smile pulled at his lips.

Then again, there were others he could ask...

"I'm find mom," Hiccup reassured the woman flying her own large dragon beside him. "It's just..."

"What?" Valka frowned slightly, knowing her boy was worrying about something.

"I miss being able to do things like this every day," Hiccup began, giving his Night Fury, who would be practically invisible if not for the silver moon, a pat on his scaly head. "My days are so filled with: my fishing boat's capsized, or: we've got nowhere to store the potato crop, or: a dragon set fire to my house- want a bigger one!'"

"Sorry to have to say this, Hiccup," Valka told her son, "but that's a Chief's job: to make sure his Village runs smoothly."

"I know," Hiccup nodded. "I do understand that, mom, it's just. Look at us," Hiccup gestured to himself and Toothless. "We only have time to go flying at night because I'm so busy 'chiefing' during the day. I've barely seen Astrid, or my other friends lately, and the Dragon Academy's getting new recruits soon."

"And Astrid and I have agreed to train them," Valka supplied, though she thought she could see where her son was going with this.

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded again, getting frustrated. "And I'm grateful for that...But_ I_ wanted to train the new recruits at the academy. I want to go flying with Toothless while the sun is _still up _so I can get a full night's _sleep_ for a change. I want to be able to see my girlfriend for more than just _ten minutes_ a day! Toothless is frustrated too, I can tell," Hiccup touched his dragons head again. "He's so _lonely_, stranded on the island all day while the other dragons are out fishing or training."

"Astrid takes him out flying when she can," Valka reminded him gently.

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded, smiling slightly. His girlfriend had become quite good at flying with a Night Fury. "It's just…"

"I know you miss the way things used to be, Hiccup," Valka told him in understanding, "but you can still do those things."

"Yeah, at night," Hiccup sighed as he lay back in his saddle, watching the stars and moon above him. "It's the only time I'm ever free to-"

Gasping, Hiccup sat ramrod straight in the saddle, staring above them.

"Did you see that?" He asked, and he felt Toothless react beneath him, turning his head and focusing his eyes intently.

"What was it, son?" Valka asked, Cloud-Jumper glancing around as well, though his eyes weren't as good as Toothless at seeing in the dark.

"I just saw a dragon pass across the moon," Hiccup felt his curiosity building up, and although he knew they had gone far enough out that it was time to head back to Berk, he just couldn't shake the feeling that this was important. "It was travelling in that direction," he pointing slightly to their left.

Wordlessly, Valka caught her son's eye, and they smiled. They were so alike.

"What do you say, buddy?" Hiccup asked Toothless. "Shall we check it out? Might be a new dragon and a new island?"

Without hesitation, Toothless took off in the direction he'd seen the shadowy dragon travel, Valka and Cloud-Jumper following close behind.

After a few minutes, a dark shape could be seen on the horizon, which eventually took the form of a large rocky island.

"Wow, another one," Hiccup marvelled as their dragons landed on a small pebbly beach at the base of some cliffs. "Maybe this is the home of that dragon we saw."

"Could you see what kind of dragon it was?" Valka asked as she dismounted.

"No," Hiccup answered as he looked around. "It was moving too quick to see."

Suddenly, Toothless bounded forward, heading toward the cliffs.

"Toothless?" Hiccup queried as he followed his dragon. "You find something, buddy?"

Toothless looked back at him urgently as he made his way closer to the base of the cliffs and Hiccup could soon see the opening of a cave.

"Well," Hiccup mused, "looks like we may have found our Dragon friend's home."

Toothless was sniffing the cave entrance, and gazing around the opening. Suddenly, he froze.

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked slowly. "Are you okay?"

Toothless glanced back at his friend and gestured with his head to enter, before slowly walking through the mouth of the cave.

"Careful, Toothless," Hiccup hissed as he followed his dragon. "We don't know what's in there."

"We don't," Valka stated pensively, "but I think Toothless does."

The cave opening was too small for Cloud-Jumper, so Valka told her dragon to wait for them on the beach while they went inside.

Moments after entering the cave, it was so black Hiccup couldn't see his hand in front of his face. So he pulled a couple of torches from his pack and soon, they had enough light to see that the cave they were in was really a tunnel, sloping its way up into the cliffs.

"Oh, my goodness," Valka examined the nearby wall carefully. "Claw marks... this _is_ a dragon's home."

"Toothless?" Hiccup sped up until he caught up with his dragon, standing at the end of the tunnel. Shining their torches ahead of them, Valka and Hiccup gaped at the size of the cavern they'd come across. Along either side of them, were holes which led outside to the cliff face, while before them, opposite each opening and covering the cave walls, were rock ledges. However, every ledge they could see was empty, and the cavern was filled with only echoing silence.

"Well," Hiccup said sadly, "this _was_ a dragon's home."

"And for so many," Valka stepped into the cavern to examine the lower ledges. "Look," she pointed, "scorch marks on every one. This must have been a great nest of many family groups."

Hiccup lifted his torch higher to try and light up the cavern as much as possible, causing dark shadows to touch the rock, worn smooth by countless dragons. "What is this place?"

Suddenly, Toothless took off, following the left edge of the cavern along the cliff face, leaping from rock to rock urgently.

"Toothless," Hiccup called as he followed. "What is it, buddy?"

Knowing her son should be safe enough with his dragon, Valka thought to examine the main cavern more closely. Climbing to a higher ledge, she cast her torch light across the rock and gasped in shock at what she found.

Toothless leapt from rock to rock, pausing at each ledge as he went, turning to look out of the hole leading out to the cliff face at each point, thin beams of light from the full moon entering the cave in various intervals as they went along.

Landing on one rock ledge, Toothless looked out of the nearest opening to the outside world and froze, feeling the sense of familiarity once more.

_This was the one..._

"Toothless?" Hiccup was panting and his bad leg was aching. Following a jumping Night Fury across uneven terrain with one leg was not an easy task. "What is it, buddy?"

Hiccup watched as his friend stared out at the sky for a few moments before looking at the ledge he was sitting on. Slowly, Toothless turned in a circle, scorching the rock ledge with his breath as he did, before curling up into a tight ball.

"Are you just tired?" Hiccup asked in confusion, though he didn't think that was it.

Unexpectedly, Toothless began to shake, a quivering, sad sound emanating from his throat and Hiccup soon realised that his friend was crying.

"_Toothless_," Hiccup whispered approaching his friend. "What's wrong, buddy?"

Hiccup stumbled on the uneven ground and only by grabbing the ledge Toothless was on stopped him from sprawling on the ground. He lowered his torch to see what had tripped him up and felt his blood run cold.

_Bones._

Hiccup had spent so much time looking _up_ when they'd entered the caves that he'd forgotten to look _down_. Piles of bones were littered across the floor and jammed between rocks. Hiccup had tripped over a large skull.

Carefully, he placed his torch to once side before picking up the skull to get a better look. A part of him thought he knew what he'd see, and another part wanted to prove it wrong.

But as Hiccup slowly turned the skull over in his hands, he felt his heart sink as he recognised the bone structure.

"These are _Night Furies_," he whispered in horror. "_Toothless?"_ Placing the skull gently on the ground, Hiccup turned to his friend, who was still tightly curled up on the rock ledge.

"Toothless?" Hiccup placed a comforting hand on his friend's side and waited as his dragon slowly raised his head. Hiccup could see the sadness in his friend's eyes as the quivering, mournful cry reverberated through the air again.

"This was _your_ home, wasn't it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked him. "This was _your_ family who slept here." He gestured to the ledge before his shoulders slumped. "I am _so sorry_, buddy."

As Toothless simply curled up again, Hiccup gazed around the caves, looking at the different rock ledges with new eyes.

"What happened here?" Hiccup asked.

Kneeling down, Hiccup examined the skull at his feet more carefully, and noticed a crack in the bone, right between the eye sockets. Squinting in the flickering light from his torch, Hiccup saw something stuck and carefully, he used his fingers to wiggle the object back and forth until he pulled out something sharp, smooth and flat. Holding the object closer to his torch, Hiccup examined what he thought was going to be a dragon tooth, but his eyes widened when he realised it was a spear head.

"_Humans_," Hiccup whispered, feeling sick to his stomach. "Humans killed them all."

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Author's note: So much is unknown about Toothless and his back story, so I wanted to try and give him one. I had always wondered why we see so many other breeds of dragons but only ever one Night Fury. In the second movie, Valka made a comment about Toothless possibly being the last of his kind, and I wondered what would drive such a magnificent, fast and stealthy species of dragon to extinction. The answer seemed pretty clear to me: Humans.

Not nice, I know, but when you look at how humans act… it's not really surprising when you think about it.

I know this is sad, but I promise, it will get better.

Please review!


	2. Contact

Author's note: Okay, here's chapter 2- I hope you like it.

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Chapter 2: Contact

"Mom!" Hiccup raced as quickly as he could back to where he'd last seen his mother. "This was a Night Fury nest. Humans killed them all: I found a spear head!"

"I know," Valka's sad voice could be heard above and Hiccup looked up as his mother carefully climbed down. "I found a club and axe further up. Look," Valka held out her hands and Hiccup let out an "Oh, no," of sadness as he saw the bones of hatchlings, some still attached to their jet black egg shell.

"They even crushed the _eggs_, Hiccup!" Valka cried mournfully. "What kind of cruel monster would even kill the _babes_?"

Shaking his head sadly, Hiccup noticed Toothless slowly approaching, taking care to move around the bones that littered the floor.

"Oh, Toothless," Hiccup was quick to comfort his friend. "I'm _so sorry_ buddy. I wonder how you escaped?" He added thoughtfully, stepping back to view his dragon.

"We may never know," Valka told her son as she gently placed the hatchling bones back in their nest. "All we can do, is be grateful that he did."

"Yeah," Hiccup considered this, giving his friend another hug. "But if _Toothless_ was able to escape," Hiccup tried to stay positive, "then maybe _other_ dragons did."

The sound of rocks clattering down to land on the floor of the cavern gained everyone's attention.

"A wild dragon?" Valka's eyes tried to penetrate the dark shadows at the top of the cavern. "A drifter, perhaps, using this empty nest site as its own?"

"Probably the dragon I saw earlier," Hiccup surmised.

The unknown dragon was clinging to the rock wall and keeping perfectly still, but Toothless' eyes were keen enough to cut through the darkness to pinpoint its location.

However as the shape of the new dragon became clearer, Toothless slowly began walking forward in shock, eyes wide and staring.

"What is it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked quietly.

Carefully, the Night Fury climbed the cave wall, leaping from rock to rock.

"Toothless, careful!" Hiccup hissed. "You could scare it away."

Sure enough, the new dragon realised it had been spotted and began bounding its way across the cave wall, trying to get away, only to find their escape blocked by Toothless. Panicking, the new dragon bounded off in another direction only to have Toothless block them again.

Hiccup and Valka struggled to see the two dark shapes moving along the shadowy rock wall, but it appeared someone lost their footing on loose rock as they moved and fell to land hard on the ground at their feet.

As the dragon got dazedly to its feet, the three of them could clearly see the jet-black dragon in the flickering torch light. At first, Hiccup thought it was Toothless and stepped forward, but he could see that this dragon had its full tail.

However there was no denying what breed it was, and as Toothless landed lightly beside him, Hiccup let out a laugh of relief.

"A _Night Fury_," Hiccup whispered before letting out a whoop of excitement. "Oh, Thor, it's a Night Fury!"

The new Night Fury was smaller than Toothless, and once it had regained its senses after the landing, let loose a _purple_ plasma blast, before making a quick retreat back up to the wall of the cave.

Hiccup and Valka quickly dodged out of the way, and Toothless simply ducked the warning shot before watching the new Night Fury scramble into a dark opening between some rocks in the cave wall.

"Purple?" Hiccup wondered, for all of Toothless' attacks gave a pale blue light. "Since when is a Night Fury's attack _purple_? Since when is there another _Night Fury_?"

"Oh, I think I can guess," Valka smiled at her son. "I think our flighty friend here is a girl."

"Really?" Hiccup asked excitedly before turning to hug Toothless. "You hear that, buddy?" He asked. "We may have just found you a girlfriend."

Carefully, Toothless once again made his way over to the cave wall before bounding his way up, leaping from rock ledge to rock ledge, until he was outside the opening where the new Night Fury had gone into.

Ducking his head, Toothless gazed inside, where he saw the new Night Fury pressed against the back wall of the small alcove she was in, growling defensively.

Quietly, Toothless made a soothing, almost purring sound to try and show he wasn't a threat.

Eventually, the new Night Fury realised that she was looking at another dragon like herself, and her curiosity overcame her fear. Slowly, she crawled out of her hiding place.

Toothless backed up and moved onto the wall of the cave, to give her room and for the first time in years, he was looking at another Night Fury.

For a few moments, they both simply stared at each other.

Suddenly excited, Toothless glided down to land on the cave floor, calling the new Night Fury down to join them. Hesitantly, the new Night Fury followed, landing on a ledge above the heads of the two humans, growling defensively.

Realising they had to show this flighty dragon they were friends, Hiccup pulled out his device that held the zippleback gas, forming a green cloud around him before setting it alight.

The new Night Fury's eyes widened and she climbed slowly down to the cave floor, staring with curiosity at this strange human who could make fire like a dragon.

Slowly, Hiccup reached out a hand, turning his gaze away. Hesitantly, the flighty Night Fury bumped her nose into his palm.

Valka crept forward, extending her hand and Flighty shrunk back slightly in fear. However, as Valka touched the pressure points around the dragon's face, she soon relaxed and allowed Valka to roll her on her back.

"See, Flighty?" Hiccup told the dragon. "We're friends. You can trust us."

"This one _is_ a girl," Valka reported happily as she examined the new dragon. "Only a few years younger than Toothless."

"So, Toothless wasn't a baby when this place was attacked?" Hiccup realised, turning to his friend. Toothless was practically shaking with excitement as he stood to one side, watching this new dragon that was like himself. But, shyly, he didn't yet have the courage to approach.

"No," Valka shook her head. "But he would've been young. Perhaps old enough to fly, but young enough to escape without notice. This one, though," Valka ran her hand over Flighty's skin, realising she was underweight, "this one may have been a hatchling. Not yet old enough to escape, but she could have hidden herself," Valka's mind was racing with scenarios as she cast her eyes over the cavern. "Perhaps between the cracks in the rocks, like when she tried to hide from Toothless?"

"She could've seen the whole thing," Hiccup whispered sadly.

"And grown up here alone, trying to teach herself to fly and hunt." Valka regarded her son seriously. "She's very underweight Hiccup. It's probably why she's so small: her growth's been stunted. It's a miracle she's survived so long on her own."

"Well then," Hiccup smiled, "a few days at Berk should solve that. You're going to have so much fish to eat, Flighty," Hiccup told the younger dragon, "you're going to think you're in Valhalla."

Finally, Toothless had gathered his courage and moved forward to greet their new friend, and honestly, Hiccup was surprised by how shy Toothless was acting, as he was usually bounding into greet new friends. Although, he thought as Toothless and Flighty slowly circled each other curiously, meeting your own species after years of thinking you're alone is a pretty big thing.

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Author's note: Told you it would be better!

I tried to give Flighty a bit of a back story as well through Hiccup and Valka trying to figure out what had happened to the Night Fury nest, and at the same time give an idea as to why they haven't met this new Night Fury before now. It was her fear that kept her alive, hiding and flying away has been her survival strategy all her life, and as such, she has made a point trying _not_ to be found. And only another Night Fury could find her.


	3. Homeward Bound

Author's note: Hello! Here's chapter 3- Flighty travels to Berk and meets the Berk Dragons! Hope you like it.

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"Okay Bud," Hiccup climbed onto Toothless' back on the pebbly beach as Valka rejoined Cloud-Jumper. "Let's show Flighty to her new home."

Toothless gleefully launched himself into the air, Cloud-Jumper close behind. However, it was a few moments before they realised that Flighty hadn't followed them.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup wondered as they hovered. "We know she can fly, so why won't she come with us?"

"Remember what you're asking her to do, Hiccup," Valka told her son. "This is the only home she has ever known. Fear is what helped her survive the attack on her home. Fear is how she has survived so long. She's _afraid_. And we need to show her that there is _more_ to life than being afraid."

Nodding, Hiccup guided Toothless back to the beach. The moment they landed, Flighty bounded off towards the mouth of the tunnel and the safety of the darkness in the cave.

"Flighty, wait!" Hiccup called and Toothless moved to block her escape, making a soothing purr in his throat to try and encourage her to calm down.

"I know you're scared, Flighty," Hiccup told her as she turned to regard him warily. "We're asking you to leave the only life you've ever known and that would be terrifying for _anyone_. But,' he continued as he approached her slowly, "our home is a place where you don't have to live in fear anymore. You can live safely, surrounded by dragons and humans who _care_ about you. Now," Hiccup knelt down before her to make eye contact, "you have a choice, Flighty: You can choose to stay here, and continue to live your life, alone and afraid, like you always have. Or, you can come with us, and see how the world has changed. It's up to you."

Slowly, Toothless came forward and gave Flighty a gentle nudge of encouragement before allowing Hiccup to climb onto his back.

Regarding the smaller Night Fury hopefully, Toothless gestured for her to follow before launching himself into the air.

Flighty stood on the beach, staring after the only other of her kind that she could remember seeing, before turning her gaze back towards the mouth of the tunnel.

Hiccup turned in his saddle, straining his eyes to see.

"I don't think she's following," he called to his mother in disappointment. "Maybe we should-"

Toothless unexpectedly dived, and Hiccup let out a cry of surprise before realising that Toothless had spotted Flighty gliding over the water below them, following their shadows cast by the moon.

"Flighty!" Hiccup exclaimed in delight. "You came!"

Looking over her shoulder, Flighty watched as her home disappeared behind the horizon. Taking a deep breath, she turned her eyes ahead of her, beating her wings hard as she climbed higher into the sky, Toothless and Hiccup following easily.

"Atta girl, Flighty!" Valka cheered as they passed her. "No more fear!"

Flighty flew vertically up into the sky, her wings beating hard until she flipped over to dive towards the water below, spreading her wings out, she turned the dive into a glide, riding the wind just above the ocean.

"Oh, she likes tricks," Hiccup observed before patting Toothless' neck. "How about we impress her with some of yours, huh, buddy?'

Toothless gleefully folded his wings to a dive and he and Hiccup began to corkscrew as they fell closer to the surface of the ocean. At the last moment, Toothless' wings opened and they skimmed just above the water's surface before climbing into the sky once more.

As they drew level with Flighty, Hiccup was happy to see that they had caught her attention and he noticed Toothless glancing over before quickly focusing once more ahead of them, as if hoping she hadn't noticed he'd glanced over.

Flighty, on the other hand, folded her wings into a dive, corkscrewing down to the ocean's surface, where she glided along, skimming the water with her claws before climbing up to do a loop.

Rejoining Hiccup and Toothless once more, Flighty looked smugly over at Toothless, who was staring right at her, now.

"Oh, competitive, are we?" Hiccup asked the smaller Night Fury. "Well, you may have met your match, Flighty: Toothless is the best flier on Berk."

Valka observed Flighty as she attempted to copy Toothless' more complicated tricks, but while she showed great determination, she struggled to keep up.

Eventually, Flighty began to drop, lagging behind slightly as she became tired and Valka realised it was time to put a stop to the games.

"She's tired, Hiccup," Valka called to her son, "and she's already underweight. I don't think she's flown this far before. She needs to eat."

Seeing Flighty lagging behind, Hiccup felt guilty for pushing the smaller dragon so far. She and Toothless had seemed to really enjoy flying together, and Hiccup had just lost himself in the fun. But now, Flighty needed help, and they were so close to Berk...

"Alright Toothless," Hiccup told his friend, "let's show Flighty your fishing skills." Swooping over the ocean, Toothless gazed through the surface of the water until he saw what he was looking for. Darting down, he sent a plasma blast into the water before swooping up again as the water splashed up, causing the small school of fish to fly into the air where Toothless could catch a mouthful easily.

Flighty had watched this with fascination and as Toothless threw her the fish, she ate them gratefully.

"Feel better Flighty?" Hiccup asked her gently and the smaller dragon did a barrel roll over the top of them in answer. "Don't worry," Hiccup assured her, "we're nearly home."

Soon, the island of Berk could be seen in the darkness, and Flighty's eyes grew wide at the sight of the human houses and torch lights that were scattered throughout the village.

Toothless heard the nervous growl emanating from Flighty's throat and was quick to fly beside her, hoping she would see he was unafraid and follow his example.

"Welcome to Berk, Flighty," Hiccup told their new friend. "This is our home and now, it's yours too."

Toothless and Cloud-Jumper landed near the shore, and Hiccup looked up to see Flighty was still hovering uncertainly above them.

"It's okay, Flighty," Hiccup encouraged. "You're safe here, you can come down."

"Perhaps she should spend her first night out of the village." Valka suggested, "At least until she becomes more comfortable with people."

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded, realising a night in the village may be a bit much for their human-phobic friend. "But how about the other dragons? If she spent the night with them," Hiccup thought aloud, "maybe she'll be more relaxed tomorrow."

Toothless took off, heading towards the Dragon Academy, encouraging Flighty to follow.

Landing at the always open doorway of the academy, Toothless, Hiccup, Cloud-Jumper and Valka gathered together as Flighty cautiously landed some distance away.

"Welcome to the Berk Dragon Academy, Flighty," Hiccup told their newest member. "This is a place where humans and dragons learn about each other, bond with each other, and train together to become partners and friends."

Toothless hurried over to Flighty, and eagerly escorted their new friend inside what, to Flighty, seemed like a large cave. So while cautious, she seemed to prefer this to the main village.

"Maybe here," Hiccup put forward as the two Night Furies passed, "you'll learn that humans aren't all as scary as you think."

As Cloud-Jumper followed Toothless inside, Flighty saw the other dragons of the academy sleeping around the arena, and once again, her curiosity overcame her fear.

"Maybe she's never been this close to other dragons before," Valka supposed as she watched Flighty cautiously approach a sleeping Stormfly.

"Nothing to be afraid of, Flighty," Hiccup said gently, as Flighty then began studying Hookfang, her curiosity growing more as she crept closer. "Tomorrow, you'll be able to meet all of our dragons, but tonight, you can just rest."

Apparently too excited to wait till morning Toothless let out a call which woke up every dragon in the academy.

"Oh, no, Toothless!" Hiccup was too late to stop Hookfang leaping awake and startling poor Flighty into crashing into the wall of the arena in panic before she hid behind Toothless.

Valka and Hiccup were quick to calm the sleepy dragons down, but Toothless let out another call. Having got his friends' attention, Toothless stepped aside to reveal Flighty, crouching low to the ground defensively.

Stormfly hurried forward, eager to meet the new dragon, only to bump into Hookfang, who was doing the same thing. As the two dragons growled in annoyance, Toothless, seeing Barf and Belch approaching and Flighty becoming increasingly nervous at the attention, tapped into his Alpha authority and calmed the whole scene down in moments.

Flighty stood up in amazement as all the dragons stopped arguing and bowed to Toothess, who stood proudly, nodding his head regally.

"So, Flighty," Hiccup spoke up, seeing the smaller Night Fury looking around in surprise, "did we happen to mention that Toothless here is the _Alpha _of_ all _the dragons?"

Flighty turned to look at Toothless, who drew himself up as tall as possible. Slowly, she bowed low to him.

Regarding this other Night Fury bowing to him, Toothless crouched low, making eye contact with her, before encouraging Flighty to stand back up. Back to his excitable self, Toothless playfully bound around his friends, making sure they were all looking at this other dragon that was like himself.

"Everybody," Hiccup translated, as Toothless then led Flighty to meet Hookfang, Stormfly, Belch and Barf, and Meatlug one by one, "we'd like you to meet our new friend, Flighty. Flighty: these are the Dragons of Berk."

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Author's note: Ok, what do you think of the story so far?

In trying to get Flighty's character, I'm trying to think of someone who is naturally curious and intelligent, as Night Furies seem to be, but has lived their life alone and feeling that fear is the only way to survive. As she's had to teach herself to hunt from being a hatchling, I'd imagine Flighty isn't at proficient at hunting/fishing as Toothless and the other dragons are, as they have all been able to help each other to get food, whereas Flighty has just had to rely on herself.

Toothless, on the other hand, is also very curious and intelligent, yet has lived his life with other dragons and can now live comfortably among humans as well. He's quite playful, and I can imagine him being very excited at finally having another Night Fury around and eager to introduce her to his friends. However, now that he is Alpha, I imagine he can have great authority over the others if he feels its needed, such as to break up an argument.

If I continue this, I'm looking forward to seeing how Flighty reacts to meeting the Dragon riders, and how the other villagers react to having another Night Fury. I can see Hiccup wrestling with his love for training dragons and his duties as being chief, struggling to pass the dragon training duties to his mother and Astrid.

Do you think I should continue it?

Please review.


	4. Fish, arson and arrows

Author's note: Hi everybody! Thank you so much for the reviews, and many of you said you would like the story to continue, so I will try my best to do so.

Note that this chapter has a battle resulting in a serious injury for one of our characters, I've tried to keep the detail as minimalist as possible, but if you are squeamish, it may still be a good idea to skip the last part of the chapter.

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The sun rose slowly over Berk, casting its pale yellow light over the eternally snow-covered houses of the village.

Hiccup was deeply asleep when he was rudely jolted awake by a large tongue licking his face.

"Toothless!" Hiccup protested as his dragon persisted in his attempts to get his rider up. Squinting, Hiccup glanced out the window and saw that the sun hadn't even risen above the horizon yet.

"I've barely had five hours sleep, buddy," Hiccup yawned, pulling the covers over his head. "Can you give me another thirty minutes? _Please?"_

Snorting with exasperation at his rider's lack of enthusiasm, Toothless gripped the bedcovers in his mouth and flicked them off with a shake of his head.

"All right, I'm up!" Hiccup yelled as he sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "What's the deal, anyway?"

Toothless stomped the floor impatiently, and as his brain woke up, Hiccup remembered.

"Flighty!"

Toothless let out a deep sigh, as if to say 'Finally, he's got it', and in moments, he and Hiccup were flying towards the Academy.

Swooping in through the open doorway, Hiccup was surprised to see his friends already gathered to collect their dragons for the routine morning ride.

"Hey, guys," Hiccup greeted anxiously, for Flighty was nowhere to be seen, "you're here early."

"Hey Hiccup," Ruffnut spoke up as she fed Barf his breakfast, "did Toothless grow his tail back?"

"No," Hiccup relaxed as this must mean she had seen Flighty somewhere. "As you can see, Toothless still has half his tail fin. On that note, I have some great news: mom and I found another Night Fury last night."

"Really?" Astrid exclaimed in surprise. "That's amazing!"

"This is so exciting!" Fish-legs could barely contain himself. "Another Night Fury!"

"Her name's Flighty, and she's kind of scared of humans," Hiccup explained, "so I was wanting to get here early to introduce you guys slowly."

"Oh, so that's who it was," Snotlout realised slowly, pausing in feeding Hookfang. "And here I thought, Toothless had turned into a chicken." As Snotlout began laughing at his joke Hookfang snapped at the fish in his rider's hand, wanting his breakfast.

"What do you mean?" Hiccup pressed. "She didn't fly away, did she?"

"Nah, she's hiding in there," Tuffnut gestured carelessly towards one of the old cages at the back of the arena and carefully, Hiccup and Toothless approached.

"When we got here for the morning flight, we found all the dragons sleeping, as usual," Astrid explained to Hiccup, "then as soon as we woke our dragons for breakfast, this _black blur_ went rushing past us and into the old Gronkle cage."

"Oh, the poor thing, she must be so scared," Fish-Legs commented sympathetically as he and Meatlug ambled over to follow. "She goes to sleep in a new place she's never been before, and suddenly wakes up, not knowing where she is, surrounded by strange dragons and strange people...poor thing." Fish-legs hugged his dragon fondly.

"Flighty?" Hiccup called into the dark cage. "Sorry about the rude awakening. It's okay though, you can come out."

Only a growl could be heard from inside the cage.

Hiccup sighed, before turning to his dragon.

"Why don't you go in, buddy?" Hiccup gestured for Toothless to go ahead and his dragon walked into the cage without hesitation.

"You said this new Night Fury was a girl?" Astrid asked and Hiccup nodded with a smile.

"Oh, no fair!" Tuffnut protested. "How come even _Toothless_ can get a girlfriend and I can't?"

"Maybe it's your personality," Ruffnut shot at her brother.

Inside the cage, Toothless found Flighty pressed against the back wall of the cage, just like she had been in the cavern.

Making a purring sound in his throat as he approached, Toothless calmed Flighty down as he came to stand beside her. Nudging her towards the exit in encouragement, Toothless led the way out of the cage.

Hiccup watched as Toothless led a timid Flighty out of the cage and into the arena.

"Stay still everyone," Hiccup told his friends, "we don't want to scare her off again."

Cautiously, Flighty moved forward enough that she was now surrounded by the dragons she had met last night and new humans. And strangely enough, she observed, the dragons seemed perfectly at ease next to the humans. The Gronkle was even allowing the large human beside her to scratch her under her chin.

"Everyone," Hiccup made the introductions, "meet Flighty."

"Oh, hi Flighty," Fishlegs greeted gently, noticing the young Night Fury's gaze on him and Meatlug. "I'm Fishlegs, it's so nice to meet you. I believe you've met my best friend, Meatlug?" The Gronkle stepped forward, and Flighty bumped her head lightly against Meatlug's in greeting.

"Oh," Fishlegs clasped his hands together happily, "Meatlug, you made a new friend." But when Fishlegs extended a hand, Flighty growled and he quickly retracted it.

"Looks like she prefers Dragon company," Fishlegs muttered.

"She's afraid of humans," Hiccup repeated. "I'm actually quite proud of how well she's doing."

"What's she so scared of?" Snotlout asked as Flighty continued to greet the dragons in the group yet stay wary of the humans. "She's a _dragon_, they're meant to be _tough_." He grinned. "Guess Night Furies aren't as tough as they _try_ to be."

"When Mom and I found the Night Fury nest, we found weapons." Hiccup explained patiently. "Humans killed Flighty's entire family. Toothless' too." He added gently and Astrid placed her hand on her boyfriends arm comfortingly. "Now, Toothless was apparently old enough to escape without being spotted, but Flighty, all she could do was hide." Slowly, Hiccup reach out a hand and cautiously, Flighty bumped her nose against his palm. "You'd be scared too, if that happened to you."

"No, I wouldn't," Snotlout answered stubbornly. "Well, maybe. But who cares?"

"We need to show her that humans aren't as scary as she thinks they are," Astrid spoke up.

"How?" Ruffnut asked.

"Oh, she seems to like bumping heads!" Tuffnutt supplied eagerly and immediately, he banged heads with his sister, but they did it so hard, they were knocked backwards onto the ground.

Flighty had jumped back in surprise before tilting her head curiously as the twins fell. Casting a questioning glance at Toothless, the other Night Fury simply huffed, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, she didn't run," Snotlout observed triumphantly. " It worked!"

"How about," Hiccup intervened quickly, "we each take turns feeding her? She's probably hungry and hasn't had breakfast yet."

"Good idea," Astrid and Fishlegs hurried over to another large basket of fish that had been left for Toothless.

Toothless, however, rushed forward and claimed the basket, pulling it away from them.

"Toothless, I know that's your fish," Hiccup tried to placate his dragon, "but you can-" he broke off as Toothless dumped the entire contents of the basket in front of Flighty. Salmon, cod, herring and all manner of other fish were scattering wetly across the arena floor.

"Very generous of you, bud," Hiccup finished lamely.

Flighty's eyes widened at the sight of all the fish, her mouth dropping in shock before she glanced at Toothless in confusion. Toothless simply gestured her to the fish pile.

"Go on, Flighty," Hiccup encouraged. "Eat as much as you like."

There was barely a second's hesitation before Flighty dove on the food.

"Woah," Tuffnut marvelled as he watched the dragon gorge herself, "she eats like Ruffnut." His sister promptly smacked him upside the head.

"Guess she's hungry," Snotlout commented, not seeing anything wrong with it.

"She's more than hungry," Hiccup observed, for the clear morning sunlight showed off just how thin Flighty really was. "She's been _starving_."

"I guess, growing up alone, she didn't have anyone to teach her how to fish properly," Fishlegs surmised sympathetically.

Once Flighty had eaten her fill, she turned to Toothless and regurgitated a fish, which he promptly ate before the two of them bumped heads gently.

"Aww," Fishlegs sighed.

"Looks like someone might have a crush on the new girl," Astrid commented with a smile as Toothless pranced around the newest member. "That's why Toothless took the basket: _he_ wanted to be the one to feed Flighty."

"Hiccup!"

Turning, the group watched as Eret swooped in on Stoick's old dragon, Skullcrusher. The former trapper leaped off and ran a few steps before coming to a halt.

"Is that another Night Fury?" He asked.

"Hi Eret," Ruffnutt waved as her brother rolled his eyes.

"Oh, give it up sis," he told her.

"Yes, it's another Night Fury, Eret," Hiccup spoke up. "This is Flighty, mom and I found her last night. Now, what's up?"

"The fishing boats are being attacked, Chief," Eret reported quickly. "Pirates, I think. Valka's gone ahead, but we'll need help."

"Alright, Gang," Hiccup ordered, "to your dragons."

Climbing on Toothless' back, Hiccup turned to Flighty.

"You can come if you like," he invited. "See humans and dragons working together."

~..~..~..~..

Out on the ocean, a group of about three fishing boats were being attacked by a five strange ships, whose white sails held the emblem of a black dragon with its own tail in its mouth, creating a circle.

Rocks flew from catapults on the ships' deck, tearing apart the wood of the Berk fishing boats.

"You could have saved yourself this," called a large man wearing blue war paint from the largest of the strange ships. "All we did was ask to board you."

"Aye, so you could commandeer our ships," the skipper of one of the fishing boats shouted back. "Pirates!"

"How dare you!" A second large man, younger than the first with his shaggy blond hair tied back off his face stepped forward angrily. "I am Sven, son of Svalgard, the conqueror of the Western Lands!"

"I don't care if you're Odin's nephew!" The skipper called back defiantly, throwing a bolas. "You're not taking our ships!"

The bolas narrowly missed the tall blond man, Sven, and instead wrapped up one of his sailors, knocking him to the deck.

"Brom, Sven," a voice called and the two men turned to view a petite young woman with blonde hair, that fell to her waist in a long braid. "I thought we agreed we'd show some _diplomacy_." She said firmly.

"We asked them nicely, Milady," The older man, Brom reminded her. "It didn't work."

"Saying, 'Let us aboard or we'll destroy you' is _not_ diplomacy!" The woman insisted.

"Diplomacy has never been our strong suit, Svetta, you know that." Sven picked the woman up with ease, placing her to one side as he signalled the catapults to launch again.

"So instead we are now destroying three perfectly good ships, that we could've taken back to father?" Svetta countered incredulously. "How does that make sense to you, brother?"

"Because three destroyed ships means three less ships to go _against_ father," Sven answered easily. "Now, get below deck before you get hurt."

Svetta scowled. "I'm just as good a fighter as anyone here!"

"Sire!"

Sven followed where Brom was pointing as a dark shape appeared through the clouds.

Svetta's eyes widened as she realised was it was.

"Sven..." she whispered. "That's a-"

"Dragon!" Sven shouted.

"Get the nets!" Brom ordered the men. "King Svalgard will have a new trophy for his collection!"

In the sky, Valka lined Cloudjumper up with one of the five strange ships.

"Now, Cloudjumper!" She ordered.

Cloudjumper let loose a fiery blast which smothered the strange ship in flames, men dove into the water to escape the blaze and a cheer went up from the fishing boats.

"One down," Valka smiled. "Four to go."

"Get those men onto the other ships!" Brom called.

"Fire at the dragon!" Sven ordered.

A catapult fired, launching a large net towards Cloudjumper, who caught it, passing it up to Valka, who threw it back down at one of the ships, where it tangled up the sailors and their weapons.

It was only at this point that Svetta actually realised someone was riding the flying beast.

"Sven!" Grabbing her brother's attention she encouraged him to look closer at the dragon swooping above their heads.

As Sven squinted in the morning sunlight, his eyes grew wide.

"There's someone _riding_ that dragon!"

"What?" Brom asked. "That's impossible!"

Suddenly, shouts could be heard from one of their other ships as it went up in smoke and Sven stopped as a great red dragon covered with spikes emerged from the smoke, its wings covered in flames.

"Oh yeah!" Snotlout crowed. "Meet my Monstrous Nightmare!"

Sven grabbed a bolas and threw it at a large young man, riding a tough looking dragon with a bludgeon-like tail.

"Help!" Fishlegs called as he was shot right out of his saddle and began falling towards the ocean, only to be caught up by Eret and Skullcrusher.

"You alright?" Eret quickly untied Fishlegs and delivered him back to Meatlug.

"Yeah, of course," Fishlegs answered as he hopped back on his dragon. "It'll take more than that to defeat us, right girl?" He hugged his dragon fondly as Eret threw the bolas, sending a sailor overboard.

Svetta dove onto the deck to avoid being hit by large blue spikes which had been shot by a brightly coloured dragon as it swooped passed. The spikes thunked loudly into the wood, one landing right by her hand.

"That was a warning shot!" Astrid yelled.

Svetta crawled along the deck, as the sailors yelled war cries and retaliated with their catapults until she reached the boxes of weaponry near the mast.

Grabbing a quiver, Svetta slung it determinedly over her shoulder before grabbing a bow.

"What happened to diplomacy?" Sven asked and Svetta turned as her brother grabbed a large broadsword.

"I think we're passed that, now," Svetta said quickly as she began to climb the mast.

Suddenly, an eerie, chilling screech filled the air and a catapult went up in flames as a blur of black and blue streaked across the sky.

Hiccup and Toothless turned to take in the scene, Flighty following Toothless' movements as she watched and wondered at this strange occurrence, not understanding what was going on.

"Alright!" Hiccup tried to calm the scene down as Toothless landed on the prow of the ship. "Who's in charge here?"

"That would be me," Sven stepped forward, sword in hand, yet froze as he saw the black dragon.

"A _Night Fury_," he gaped.

Seeing the symbol on the ship's sail, Toothless felt a long forgotten fear rising in the back of his mind, accompanied by screams, cries, the sound of blasting rock and the feeling of fire.

Svetta paused in her climbing in shock before shaking herself out of it and climbing up into the crow's nest to ready her bow.

"Yes, this is a Night Fury," Hiccup placed a hand on Toothless' head and his dragon growled, showing his many sharp teeth. "So's this one, she's new," Hiccup casually gestured to where Flighty hovered above them. "And these, are the Dragon Riders of Berk." Hiccup gestured to his friends in the air. "We don't want any trouble."

Brom burst out laughing, wiping his brown hair out of his eyes.

"You don't want trouble, ay?" The big man asked. "Then why is one of my ships now charcoal?"

"Because _you_ were attacking our fishing boats _first_," Hiccup answered slowly. "But you still have four left," he continued quickly, "so if you leave now, we promise not to hurt you further."

"You must think us cowards!" Sven shouted, brandishing his sword. "The Svalgards never run from _any_ challenge. _Especially_ not from traitors to their kind, who ride on the very beasts that destroy lives."

"Dragons aren't the destroyers of life," Valka answered angrily. "People like _you_ are!"

"And if you guys hate dragons so much," Hiccup added, "then why do you have one on your sail?"

Sven laughed.

"Do you not know what this symbol is?" Sven gestured to the emblem on his ships' sail.

"Um... a dragon eating its tail?" Tuffnutt answered slowly in confusion.

"Why would a dragon eat itself?" Ruffnutt asked aloud.

"It is a symbol of destruction and rebirth," Sven answered proudly. "It reminds us that even the greatest of kingdoms will eventually fall, only for a new kingdom to rise. The Dragon," he continued, pointing at the Night Fury before him," has always been the greatest and most feared beast in this world, but eventually, even _their_ reign will come to an end. My father has been travelling the world, ridding it of its greatest menace, and for a long time, we thought we'd got them all," Sven smiled. "But it looks like we've found where the last of them are hiding."

"You're not getting anywhere near our dragons!" Snotlout yelled.

"Dragons are _not_ the enemy," Hiccup tried to stay calm. "I can show you!"

"Says the one riding the Darkest of them all," Sven sneered before turning to his men. "Fire at will!"

"Okay," Svetta swallowed as she sighted along her arrow, following the Night Fury and his rider as they rose into the air.

Seeing the movement in the crow's nest, Astrid saw the woman take aim, following the trajectory, she felt her blood ran cold as she realised the archer was aiming for Hiccup.

"Stormfly, spine-shot!"

Stormfly whipped her tail forward, shooting her spikes toward the woman in the crow's nest. Several spikes landed solidly in the mast, creating a line travelling up the wood, but the last one pierced the woman's shoulder, sending her arrow wild and knocking her out of the look-out post to fall towards the deck below.

"Svetta!" Sven screamed as he ran towards his falling sister.

"Fire!" Brom ordered, and Hiccup and the others had to move quickly to dodge the boulders, nets and arrows that flew at them.

Sven dove forward, wrapping his sister into his arms to break her fall, turning to take the brunt of the landing on his own side.

"Svetta," he lay his sister gently on the deck of the ship. "Are you alright?"

"My shoulder feels like it's got a spike through it," Svetta answered dully, her eyes unfocussed as she lifted a hand to her shoulder.

Furious, Sven grabbed Svetta's bow and searched the sky until his eyes landed on the woman who rode the colourful spiked dragon.

"No attack on our family goes unpunished," he whispered.

Carefully, he took aim.

"Mom!" Hiccup called to Valka as they flew. "You, Eret and Snotlout help the fishing ships get home safely. We'll keep these ships distracted."

"Aaaahh!"

The sound of Astrid's scream made Hiccup's heart stop and he turned to see his girlfriend fall, an arrow piercing her torso.

"No!" Hiccup screamed and he made Toothless dive.

'Please, Odin, let her live,' Hiccup prayed desperately. 'I _can't_ lose her.'

Toothless caught Astrid carefully and as Stormfly caught up with them, he placed Astrid gingerly back in her saddle.

"_Astrid?"_ Hiccup flew alongside the Nadder, his eyes focused on the woman slumped in the saddle.

Slowly, Astrid turned her head to meet Hiccup's gaze, sending him a smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Oh, thank Thor," Hiccup breathed. "Don't worry, Astrid, you'll be alright."

"Course I will," she said through gritted teeth, one hand gripping her saddle and the other holding her wound. "And I'll have a cool new scar to show off too."

"Back to Berk!" Hiccup yelled. "Ruff, Tuff, Fish, give us some cover!"

"No problem," Ruff smiled as Barf began breathing thick green gas over the four remaining Svalgard ships. Meatlug then spat thick lava into the ocean, causing great swirls of steam to rise up, and the combination of gas and steam worked as a perfect cover as the three largest dragons pulled on ropes connected to the fishing boats to tow them back home.

"See ya, wouldn't want to be ya!" Tuff called as he signalled Belch to light the gas causing a huge explosion of fire around the remaining ships. One was his worst that the others, bursting into flames and forcing the sailors to abandon ship.

Down to three ships, and with the air clearing, Sven's eyes followed the shapes of the dragons as they flew off, too far now to fire at, yet he took note of the direction they were headed before lifting his sister into his arms.

"Take her below deck," Sven ordered as he passed her to one of the men. "See that her wound is tended to." Sven then moved to stand by Brom, who, like him was following the direction of the dragon's flight.

"I thought you and father said all the Night Furies had been killed, uncle?" Sven asked tersely.

"Well," Brom considered. "It looks like we missed a couple."

"We should send word to father that the Dark Dragons still live," Sven hissed.

"And then," Brom turned to his nephew. "Would you be willing to settle the score yourself this time round?"

Sven smiled, for he had been too young to join the first onslaught.

"It would be my pleasure," he said.

~..~..~..~..

"We're lucky," Valka reported, " the arrow went all the way through."

"_How is that lucky?"_ Hiccup demanded, on the verge of panic.

The moment they landed on Berk, Astrid had been rushed to their Elder, Gouldie, for healing. Gobber had come too, for he'd dealt with wounds like Astrid's before, and had a fire stoked and ready, with a poker resting in the flames.

"It's _lucky_," Gobber told his former apprentice firmly, "because it means the arrow's easier to take out."

Carefully, he turned Astrid onto her uninjured side, and Hiccup choked back a cry as he saw the arrowhead sticking out of her back.

With a swift, practiced move, Gobber broke the arrowhead off cleanly before slowly withdrawing the shaft.

Hiccup's grip on Astrid's hand tightened as she moaned in pain.

"Lucky again," Gobber stated as he examined the arrow shaft, "looks like it missed everything important."

"Gobber?" Hiccup asked fearfully as his old mentor removed the poker from the fire. "What are you going to do with that?"

"We have to seal the wound, Hiccup," he answered grimly. "Otherwise Astrid could lose too much blood."

Valka moved to hold Astrid steady.

"Okay, Astrid," Gobber told his patient. "This is going to hurt."

Astrid's scream of pain could be heard from outside, where the other riders and the dragons were waiting, and everyone flinched in sympathy.

"_Now_, Gouldie," Gobber ordered.

The Elder came forward with a salve and bandages, and quickly cleaned and dressed Astrid's wound with expert hands.

"I can't believe I screamed," Astrid mumbled into the pillow as Valka and Hiccup carefully positioned her on the bed. "I thought I'd be stronger than that."

"Are you kidding me?" Hiccup laughed weakly as he stroked her face. Of all the things for Astrid to complain about right now... "You're the strongest person I know."

"He's right, Astrid, you did very well," Gobber placed the poker in cold water in a hiss of steam. "Most people fall unconscious after a treatment like that."

"Sleep does sound good," Astrid admitted as her eyes fluttered, and Gouldie was quick to give her a few sips of water before she fell unconscious.

Hiccup kissed Astrid's forehead tenderly before settling himself by her bedside, her hand gripped tightly in both his own.

"She'll wake up, son," Valka hugged her son from behind. "I've seen Vikings wounded like this before, and as long as the arrow missed her organs-"

"Which it did!" Gobber chimed in. "Thank Thor."

"- then Astrid should recover." She kissed her son's cheek in comfort, though his eyes never left the woman lying on the bed.

"I _can't_ lose her, mom," Hiccup whispered.

"Then you _won't_, son." Valka told him. "If there's one thing I know about our family, Hiccup: it's that we _never_ give up on those we love."

Hiccup wordlessly brought Astrid's hand to his lips, kissing it tenderly before accepting the bowl of water and cloth that Gouldie passed him.

"I'll handle the chieftain duties, Hiccup," Valka told her son as he began to wipe the sweat and blood from Astrid's skin with the cool water. "And the Dragon Academy, while you tend to Astrid's recovery."

"Thanks mom," Hiccup answered distractedly and he didn't even hear her leave the room with Gobber to report to the other riders.

Placing the water bowl to one side, Hiccup gently brushed his fingers along Astrid's cheek.

"_Please_, wake up," he told her. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

~..~..~..~..

Author's note: So, what do you think?

Before I get any hate reviews, I would like to first say that: _of course_ I'll have Astrid recover- she's one of the strongest characters, after all.

However, I think that this event will greatly change Hiccup's perspective on things in his life...

Also, I wanted to add some new characters as the villains, and I figured: we have an idea of what happened to the Night Fury nest, but who were the ones who did it? So, I thought I would bring things full circle and show the 'Svalguard clan' who had destroyed the Night Fury nest originally to return to the Northern waters and want to finish their work. However, I didn't want them to just be the 'bad guys' so I'm trying to give them a greater depth, starting with their fierce love and protection for their family.

I was thinking Brom would just be the 'Right hand man', but I thought it would make his relationship with Sven and Svetta more interesting, if it turned out he was a relative.

Sven and Svetta are actually twins, but Svetta is kind of the 'Hiccup' of the two, with Sven having all the height and strength, and Svetta spending most of her time trying to prove she's as tough as her brother and can contribute just as well as he can.

The symbol of the dragon eating its tail as a representing destruction and rebirth is a genuine symbol and I think it was actually used by a king at some point in history, though I can't remember which one. As I'm thinking this story is like 'Svalgard vs Night Fury round 2' I thought it an appropriate symbol to use in this story.

I didn't want Flighty to actually take part in the battle, as, of course, she's still pretty much wild, and is really just attached to Toothless, being the only one of her kind that she's met. And while this chapter was quite serious, I am hoping to fit in some more light-hearted moments as Toothless tries to impress the new girl.

Please leave a review, I am open to constructive feedback.


	5. Lookouts and laughter

Author's note: Hi everybody! When I first started this story, it was just going to be a little 'Toothless and Flighty romance' fic, but when people asked me to continue writing, I realised I do _love_ a layered plot and had to add more stories to Toothless and Flighty's story.

I hope you like this next chapter.

~..~..~..~..

Svetta made her way up on deck slowly, keeping her injured shoulder as still as possible. She'd hated the fact that she'd fallen unconscious. The ship's physician had said the dragon's spike had hit a major artery and she'd lost a lot of blood, but still, Svetta was already considered the weakest of her family, and she hated the idea that the label had been further solidified by her injury.

"Svetta!"

'Here we go,' Svetta held herself as tall as possible, doing her best to ignore the throbbing pain in her left shoulder as her brother approached.

"What are you doing on deck?" He demanded in concern. "You should be below, resting."

"I've rested enough, brother," Svetta answered firmly, gritting her teeth. "And I feel I should be present when we board father's ship to report." She gestured to the large ship of the fleet they were approaching, for their five ships had been sent ahead to scout the area.

"It's bad enough I have to report one ship burnt to a crisp and two more charred and needing mending, I have to report you getting yourself injured," Sven muttered. "Why did I let you convince me to bring you along?"

Svetta frowned, grabbing her brother's arm with her good hand.

"I am just as much a part of this family as you, or Father," she reminded him. "_Uncle Brom's_ less connected than me. He was _Mother's_ brother. It's a miracle Father let him–"

"Father let Brom keep his station in the army when he proved himself by fighting the dragons _alongside_ Father," Sven finished firmly. "Not this argument again, Svetta."

"He betrayed his own sister," Svetta hissed. "Is it any stretch to consider that he could betray Father too?"

"Brom went against Mother because she was on the wrong side," Sven explained impatiently as they drew up alongside the ornately carved hull of their father's ship, preparing to board. "We've been over this, Svetta." He cast a glance at his sister, raising an eyebrow. "Perhaps it's _you_ we need to worry about?"

Svetta blanched. "Do you really believe that?"

Sven laughed as he pulled teasingly at his sister's long braid, like he had when they were little.

"Of course not, sister," he assured her. "You're no threat to anyone."

~..~..~..~..

Back at the Berk Training Academy the riders were preparing their dragons for another flight.

"Okay guys," Fishlegs said nervously. "I know we're all worried about Astrid, but while Hiccup is tending to her, and Valka's acting Chieftain, she's told me to train some new recruits while you guys do a scout of the area."

"I don't know why she left _you_ in charge," Snotlout grumbled. "_I've_ got the higher rank in this group."

"It's because, out of the riders remaining, _I_ know the most about training dragons, so _I'm_ teaching the academy when Valka's busy." Fishlegs said firmly.

"Are you saying you'd _rather_ stand in the front and go 'blah, blah, blah' like Hiccup always does?" Tuffnut asked Snotlout in confusion.

"Instead of looking for those guys who shot Astrid and _blast_ them off the edge of the world?" Ruffnut finished, pounding a fist into her palm.

Considering this, Snotlout nodded.

"Good point. You stay and teach kids, Fishlegs, and _I'll_ go avenge Astrid." Smugly, Snotlout mounted Hookfang.

"You think I don't _want_ to get those guys back, Snotlout?" Fishlegs asked incredulously. "You think I don't _care_ that Astrid got wounded? We are going to need _all_ the help we can get, and that means training new riders as quickly as possible."

"Whatever," Snotlout waved his hand, trying not to show how worried he really was. "It would help if we knew where to start!"

Fishlegs looked over at Eret, who was preparing Skullcrusher for his next flight silently, his back towards the others.

"Eret?" he called. "You used to travel a lot: even heard of those guys before?"

Eret closed his eyes before taking a deep breath and turning around.

"Actually," he admitted slowly, "yes, I have. King Svalgard has the symbol of the circled black dragon. His family took over my homeland."

"I thought that was Drago?" Snotlout commented. How many guys could conquer the area?

"No, Drago came afterward," Eret supplied guardedly. "King Svalgard wanted to kill the dragons, and after he took control of my homeland, he began to do just that. Then, Drago appeared, taking every dragon he could find, that hadn't been killed by Svalgard's men, with him and his Alpha. My father had been a part of that first battle, and when I grew up," he shrugged, "trapping dragons for Drago seemed like the better option for me."

"Sounds like there's something more you're not telling us," Fishlegs folded his arms, waiting.

"I was just a kid at the time, alright?" Eret said defensively. "I don't remember much."

"Wait," Ruffnut frowned in confusion. "You said this Svalgard guy took over your homeland? Where is that, exactly? You've never told us."

Eret felt his muscles tense as he felt the eyes of the others on him.

"Because it's _gone_ now," he stated fiercely avoiding eye contact as he mounted Skullcrusher. "And if you don't want the same thing to happen to Berk, we need to find out how to stop them."

Without another word, Eret urged Skullcrusher up and the two of them launched into the air.

"What was that about?" Tuffnut asked.

"He's just wanting to get on with finding these guys!" Snotlout said impatiently. "So let's _go_ already!"

"Spread out and search guys," Fishlegs encouraged his friends as he saw a group of teenagers approaching the doors of the academy. "I've got a class to teach."

~..~..~..~..

Toothless sat outside the healer's hut where Hiccup stayed, caring for Astrid. The Night Fury had never seen his friend so worried. But then, he knew, Hiccup's heart was bigger than most humans he'd met. And this was Hiccup's mate who was injured, so of course his friend was worried.

Toothless sighed as he glanced to where Stormfly, Astrid's dragon, was sitting, preening herself in the sunlight. Even with her rider wounded, the vain dragon coped with her worry by attending to her looks.

Snorting slightly, Toothless allowed his eyes to travel out over the harbour, where the fishing boats were being mended, and towards the ocean, mentally travelling back to where they had found the strange ships.

The picture on those sails... he _knew_ he had seen it before. He hadn't understood everything that the strange human had said on the ship, but he knew enough of the human language to understand that this new group of humans were interested in killing dragons, rather than bonding with them, like his humans did.

Closing his eyes, Toothless cast his mind back in time, and slowly, flashes of memory, or memories of old nightmares, came into his mind.

_Human yells. Night Fury screams. Flashes of fire and steel and his father pushing him out of the cavern hole into the cold night air..._

Shaking his head to clear it, Toothless opened his eyes again and his ears pricked as he heard a Night Fury call.

Looking up eagerly, Toothless saw the female his rider had named 'Flighty' soaring across the blue sky and immediately felt his heart leap.

Toothless had accepted long ago that he was the only one of his kind, and filled his heart with his friends, adventure and play. However it wasn't until he and Hiccup had found his old home that he realised just how lonely he was.

Finding Flighty had been like starting a fire in his chest. He finally had someone like himself. She was as tough and intelligent as any Night Fury he could remember, but clearly she had lived a hard life, living on her own. He relished the fact that he could teach her, provide for her. Not just as the Alpha, but as himself.

Although, he had to admit, seeing the look on Flighty's face when she realised he was the Alpha made him feel pretty good, too.

Hearing Flighty's call again, Toothless spread his wings without thinking. He wanted to fly with her, to race with her on the wind and show her everything he knew about flying, fishing and life among humans, for she was still too wary to land in the village.

Toothless made to launch himself into the sky, only to land back on solid ground. Turning, he viewed the red tailfin that Hiccup had made for him, and while he had always been grateful for his friend's work, he now stomped his feet, snorting in frustration.

He wanted to be in the sky with Flighty. He _needed_ to. He sent a call up to Flighty, who hung in the air, riding the thermals, hoping she would come down. But while she lowered herself in the sky, she still refused to land so close to a human house.

Toothless slapped his tail against the ground. He couldn't fly without Hiccup.

~..~..~..~..

Hiccup carefully trickled water into Astrid's mouth, moistening her lips. It had been at least four hours since she'd fallen unconscious and she still hadn't woken up. Hiccup was becoming more anxious with each passing moment.

Hearing a movement behind him, Hiccup turned as Toothless came into the room.

"Hey, Toothless," Hiccup greeted quietly as Toothless came to stand by the bed. Carefully, Toothless worked his head under Astrid's hand, making a purring sound in his throat.

"I know you're worried about her, Bud," Hiccup placed his hand over Astrid's where it rested on Toothless' nose. "I am too. But hey," Hiccup swallowed. "Astrid's the strongest person I know. And if I could recover from the battle with the Red Death, then she can definitely survive an arrow. Right?"

Making the purring noise in his throat again, Toothless licked Hiccup's face to show his support.

"Thanks, Bud," Hiccup said gratefully, wiping at the dragon saliva with his sleeve. "So," he continued, wanting to get away from the tightness in his chest, "how are things going with Flighty?"

Toothless looked away, shuffling his feet on the wooden floorboards.

"Oh, don't tell me it's not going well," Hiccup couldn't believe it, "you're the _Alpha Dragon_. How could she resist you?"

Turning, Toothless made his way outside and after kissing Astrid's cheek, Hiccup followed. Gothi came to take Hiccup's place by the bed.

Hiccup squinted slightly in the sunlight as he watched Toothless perch right on the edge of the cliff, gazing upward. Following his line of sight, Hiccup could see Flighty swooping in circles on the air currents.

"Oh, I see," Hiccup said slowly as he approached Toothless. "She still too scared to come down, huh?"

Toothless called out to sea, and Flighty turned and made her way back towards the cliffs, but as before, she hovered above their heads, still wary.

Toothless tried to fly again, but landed on the ground. Turning his head to view Hiccup, Toothless gestured for his friend to get on his back, his eyes pleading, hopeful.

Hiccup smiled, about to step forward, when he stopped himself, turning to look back at the hut, where the woman he loved lay unconscious.

"Oh, Toothless," Hiccup began apologetically, but Toothless let out a breath in a sigh. He should have known Hiccup wouldn't want to leave his mate, and it had been selfish of him to ask him to. Slowly, Toothless approached his friend and nudged him back towards the hut.

Turning back to the cliff edge, Toothless lay down on the grass, resigning himself to simply watching the female Night Fury flying above his head, grateful that she at least stayed in his sight. But still, he sighed, he didn't feel much like the 'Alpha Dragon' stuck here on the ground.

Seeing how miserable his friend clearly was changed Hiccup's perspective. Astrid was in the best of care with Gothi, his mother was taking care of the village, Fishlegs was training new recruits at the academy and Snotlout, the Twins and Eret were scouting for signs of the 'Svalgard' clan.

Hiccup mentally berated himself for being selfish, wanting to stay with Astrid and ignore his duties, both as chief and as a dragon rider.

Toothless gasped as he felt the familiar weight of his friend climbing onto his back and turned his head to view Hiccup.

"You've helped me countless times over the years, bud," Hiccup told him. "And I'm no use to anyone sitting here and worrying. Mom and the others are taking care of the village and the academy, so now, it's time for me to help you." He smiled. "Let's go, Bud."

Delightedly, Toothless leapt from the cliff, feeling Hiccup adjusting the tailfin he'd made to help him climb into the sky.

"Hey Flighty," Hiccup called to the other Night Fury. "Mind if we join you?"

As Toothless and Flighty began flying in circular patterns across the sky, crossing over each other's flight paths, flying tandem or suddenly breaking off to do a trick independently, Hiccup resolved to create a tailfin that Toothless could control on his own, as soon as possible.

~..~..~..~..

King Svalgard's ship lay moored at a small island, the King's tent erected on the beach. For while his ship was large, there were too many people to have counsel with regarding the report his son and Brother-in-law had brought him, so they'd diverted from the ship's deck to the small beach.

Svetta observed her father as he studied the map spread out on the table before him rather than look at her, his large size filling the tent, giving the illusion that he was even bigger than he was. His hair, more grey than blond now, was tied back off his face, yet his age didn't detract from his powerful presence. In fact, the weight of his experiences seemed to add to his effect on those in the room.

"So, daughter," Svalgard spoke quietly in a tone that Svetta recognised as meaning she was in deep trouble. "You ignored your brother's orders to get below deck and got yourself badly injured as a result?"

Svetta swallowed. "I wanted to do my part," she admitted. "And I hardly think my actions are our biggest problem, father-"

"If I want your thoughts, I'd _ask_ for them," Svalgard finally raised his head and his ice blue eyes froze Svetta's words in her throat and she lowered her eyes.

Svalgard straightened up. "We now have a wounded royal," he muttered as he came around the table. "Who would _dare_ injure one of my family?" He clenched his jaw before relaxing slightly. "At least it wasn't Sven who was injured," Svalgard added thoughtfully.

Standing by his uncle, having both given their reports already, Sven's eyes darted to his sister, and he watched as Svetta's shoulders slumped, causing her to wince as pain shot through her shoulder again.

"Thank you for your assuring words father," she mumbled.

"Don't talk out of turn," her father reprimanded. "You're just like your mother, you know that?"

Svetta nodded. "You tell me frequently, father," she said. Though, as usual she was sure the comparison wasn't meant as a compliment.

"Celtic blood is strong," Svetta heard her uncle mutter as he absentmindedly stroked the blue tattoos painted on his face, and felt that, at least in her uncle's eyes, the other side of her heritage was something to be proud of.

Sven stepped forward quickly. "I shot the one who dared injure a child of Svalgard," he spoke up. "It was a woman, riding a brightly coloured dragon."

"A woman?" Svalgard raised an eyebrow.

"You've visited the North before, Sire," Brom interjected, stepping forward to remind his brother-in-law. "The women here are allowed to become warriors."

"Which means the number of soldiers we would face in battle would be doubled," Sven considered.

"I don't care if these people have warrior women," Svalgard waved his hand as he returned to the map. "It's these dragons I'm interested in."

"_Two_ Dark Dragons, Father," Sven repeated. "_Two_ dragons of Chaos, but the locals call them Night Furies. And there are other species also. Ones we haven't seen before."

"These people _ride_ them, father," Svetta spoke up, and had to admit she was at the same time impressed and fearful of what she had seen earlier that day. "It's more than anything mother -"

"You're dismissed, Svetta," her father interrupted.

"What?" Svetta asked.

"You're dismissed," Svalgard repeated. "Leave us."

Svetta clenched her jaw. "I think I could contribute-"

"Like you contributed today?" Svalgard pressed, gesturing to the bandages around her shoulder.

"I want to do my part," Svetta admitted again.

"And you will," Svalgard assured her, "when the time comes a man is willing to wed you."

Laughing at his joke, the king gestured for Brom, Sven and the other men in his council to gather around the table.

Sven quickly followed his sister out of the tent and grabbed her uninjured arm to turn her around to face him.

"Don't let him get to you," he began, but Svetta shook off his touch.

"Why not?" She demanded. "He's never happy with _anything_ I do, even if it's..._embroidery_!"

"I think you just remind him too much of mother," Sven tried to calm his sister down.

"I don't even _look_ like her!" Svetta shook her head as she began to pace. "I've seen the paintings, I remember- different hair, different face..."

"But you act a lot like her," Sven insisted. "I've heard uncle Brom mention it many times- you have the same mannerisms as her."

"So what?" Svetta countered again. "She and Father were _arranged_ to be married. They only met a week before the wedding! Why would he care so much?"

Sven sighed. All his sister had ever wanted was their father's approval, and whether her attempts were in simple domestic duties or on the battle field, she had always failed to impress.

"I can't claim to know what father wants, Svetta," he began when his uncle's voice could be heard, calling him back to the council tent. Reaching out, he lifted his sister's chin up with his fingertips.

"Hey," he told her earnestly. "You are a _royal_. Your blood is better than most anyone's. Do your best to uphold our family's honour and you will gain father's approval, sister. And don't worry," he added with a smile. "I'll tell you everything we talk about in council."

Turning, Sven made his way back to the tent.

Sighing with frustration, Svetta thought she ought to make her way back to the ship. But, not wanting to be bored pacing her room, she decided to explore the small island they were on, and possibly vent some frustration out of sight of her father's men.

Regaining her composure, Svetta headed off along the beach toward some cliffs in the North West that reached almost to the tide line.

~..~..~..~..

Eret flew above the clouds, eyes scanning the ground whenever there was a break in the fluffy cover. He and Skullcrusher couldn't afford to fly below the cloud, where it was easier to see, for it also meant it was easier for someone to see_ them_, and Eret needed stealth on his side.

As there were only three dragons flying, they had split up to cover more ground to find Svalgard's ships and it had been a while since he had seen Snotlout or either of the twins. And while Eret usually loved the silence of being in the sky, right now he would have loved something, _anything_, to take him out of his own head. Even if it was Ruffnut's persistent flirting.

Eret shook his head. While he respected Ruffnut as a Dragon Rider and considered her a friend, he had to admit that he held no romantic interest in her. Thankfully, she'd lessened her advances as of late, seeming to prefer the competitive nature of Snotlout and Fishlegs, who openly admired her- Tuffnut actually had a pool going on who she'd end up choosing- but still, whenever Eret thought she'd finally given up, Ruffnut would say or do something that would show she was still interested.

Like the time she'd pinched his butt while he was mounting Skullcrusher at the Dragon Race last week. Eret cringed- _that_ had been uncomfortable although, he considered, it could have been part of her game strategy, he'd spent the entire race trying to avoid her, leading him to come fifth.

Eret noticed the cloud beginning to thin and wondered if he should risk continuing his search for the Svalgard ships in the open sky. True, it would mean he would be easier to spot by a lookout, but still, the cloud made it difficult for him to see as well.

As the edge of the cloudbank approached, Eret resolved to continue his search, and do his best to keep his large dragon out of firing range. They needed to find those ships…

The fluffy white clouds beneath the pair suddenly vanished, and Eret felt that familiar feeling of vertigo, which he was still getting used to, as he looked down to see the ocean glittering far below him in the early afternoon sunlight.

Casting his eyes around, he realised just how limited his vision in the clouds had been, as a small island was off to his right, and he hadn't even noticed it.

"How did I miss that?" He wondered aloud, urging Skullcrusher towards the island to circle it.

"Come on, mate," he told Skullcrusher as they headed towards the island cliffs, "we've got to check this out."

~..~..~..~..

On the beach, Svalgard's men were busy trying to assess the charred ships to see what needed repairing.

"Dragons!" The chief builder said derisively as he broke off a piece of the railing. "I thought we'd finished with them all! Look at this!" He gestured to charred wood of the damaged hull and deck. "Months of work destroyed in _minutes_!"

"Oh, don't worry Olaf," one of the others called up. "If I know King Svalgard, he'll have the whole North cleared of Dragons in a few months. Maybe less, if the Celtic lands were anything to go by."

"Dragon!" Someone shouted and eyes turned to see a large dragon appear around the edge of the cliffs.

King Svalgard, Brom, Sven and those of the council came running out of the tent, eager and ready for battle.

"Get the catapults!" Svalgard ordered.

~..~..~..~..

Eret had just crested the Western side of the cliffs when he spotted the Svalgard ships moored off the small beach.

"Oh, here they are," Eret felt his jaw clench as he regarded the emblem on the sail bitterly. Then Eret felt his heart sink as he spotted the large armada gathered in the ocean beyond the ships moored at the beach.

"Dragon!" He heard a faint shout from the shore.

"Uh-oh," Eret realised he'd been spotted, and was quick to bring Skullcrusher to a hover to try and keep him out of range.

'Idiot, Eret!' He berated himself, fearful for his dragon. 'Why did you leave the clouds?'

As the men on the beach prepared a catapult, Eret cast his eyes along the cliffs, which were more like stacks of rock, really. Not quite big enough for Skullcrusher to hide behind easily.

Looking back down at the beach, Eret noticed the men were loading the catapult with a boulder covered in some kind of black material.

As he watched, he noticed someone touch a torch flame to the material, and the boulder went up in flames faster than a Monstrous Nightmare.

"Oh-"

~..~..~..~..

"Shoot!"

The catapult launched the flaming boulder into the sky, arching over the low cliffs towards the dragon, and while it appeared it would fall short, the dragon could soon be seen falling out of sight behind the cliffs.

"Get to the cliffs!" Svalgard barked. "I want that dragon's head! And if it has a rider," he finished with a smile, "bring them to me."

~..~..~..~..

Eret watched as the flaming boulder came straight towards him.

"Wait for it, mate," he whispered, as the ball of fire came closer, and closer.

"Now!"

Eret urged Skullcrusher into a dive at the apex of the flaming ball's trajectory, and from faraway, it would have looked as if the boulder had struck the dragon's shoulder, though it actually fell short.

Eret dove down until he spotted a small ledge on the cliff face.

"Okay, Skullcrusher, leave me here," Eret ordered his dragon as he jumped onto the rock and held tightly. "Go hide back in the cloud cover, before they arrive." He grinned. "I'll call you when it's time to go."

Skullcrusher moved with a speed that belied his great bulk until he was out of sight in the clouds to the North of the Island.

Eret waited, hoping his idea would work. If the men on the beach had seen Sckullcrusher fall, and were half the warriors they made themselves out to be, they'd have immediately began racing towards this spot, hoping to find the 'injured' dragon, ready to finish it off.

And, as Eret was meant to be on a surveillance mission, he thought he'd try and use the time to learn more about the people he was dealing with.

For while he knew of Svalgard, he'd been too young to remember how he'd come into the power he'd gained. Eret just knew of the stories his father told after they had fled their home, forced out by Svalgard's men under threat of death.

Eret frowned. His father and his family had suffered a lot because of this tyrant, and Eret was determined to finally get some answers.

Catching a movement down below, Eret gripped the rock tightly, as he craned his neck to see the thin shoreline, trying not to think of the ocean waves that swirled and eddied directly below him.

"That was quick," he muttered to himself. For while the island was small, Eret would have thought it would have taken much longer than this to reach the cliffs from the other side of the island on foot.

But it wasn't a group of men running towards the cliffs, but a single woman. Her blond hair fell in a long braid down her back and she wore a long, pale purple tunic that fell to her knees, the long sleeves reaching a point over her middle finger. Her leggings were dark brown, almost black and her boots were made of brown leather. A wide knotted belt with a silver buckle showed off her small waist and as she ran, Eret noticed one of her shoulders was thickly bandaged, giving her a lopsided appearance.

Eret frowned in confusion until he remembered he'd seen the woman on the lead Svalgard ship earlier that day.

As the woman continued to run along the beach, heading towards the spot where Skullcrusher supposedly 'fell', Eret lost sight of her.

Gritting his teeth, he swallowed as he gingerly began to edge his way along the cliff face.

However, as he reached with one hand, his left foot slipped on the rock.

"Ahh!"

Eret desperately clung to the cliff face, the rock cutting into his fingers as he tried to regain his footing.

His arms were burning with the effort of holding himself up, yet his handhold was so thin, there was barely room for his fingertips.

Gasping for breath as he tried to pull himself up, Eret felt his heart stop as he lost his grip on the rock.

"Help!" Eret screamed as he plummeted to the ocean below, hoping Skullcrusher could hear him.

No help came from the sky however, and he landed amongst the cold waves.

~..~..~..~..

Svetta had been using a long piece of driftwood she'd found to practice her staff work when she'd seen a large dragon fall from the sky on the other side of the cliffs. On impulse, she began running along the beach, following the line of the cliffs along the shoreline towards where it had disappeared.

As she rounded the cliffs however, she thought that she should have been able to see such a large dragon at this distance, although, now she thought about it, she should have heard or felt the impact of such a large dragon crashing onto such a small island.

Slowing to a jog, Svetta scanned the area around her. Perhaps the dragon recovered and flew off? Or was it just further down the beach?

"Help!"

Whipping her head around to the sound of the cry, Svetta gasped as she saw someone fall from a nearby cliff face and into the water that was crashing onto the shore.

Changing direction, she grabbed a large, flat piece of driftwood from those that littered the shoreline and raced into the water, using the driftwood to help keep her afloat in the waves.

The water was freezing, but Svetta had grown up swimming in the cold waters off the Celtic coast, so while she gasped at the first chill, she mentally pushed past the cold, staying focused on the spot where she'd seen the person fall.

Feeling the flow of the current, Svetta slanted the driftwood to swim at an angle, rather than fight the current directly, thankful that the chilly water at least numbed the pain in her injured shoulder.

Seeing a flash of a hand, Svetta kicked harder, shaking the seawater out of her eyes until she found a man trying to fight the current, and failing.

"Hey," she shouted over the sound of the waves. "Grab onto this." She got off the driftwood, being sure to keep her numbing fingers gripped tightly into the grain as she manoeuvred the wood towards the man struggling to keep his head above water. Instantly, he grabbed the wood as a life line, and with something solid in his grasp, the man was able to calm down enough to tread water. Coughing up water and gasping for breath, the man blinked as he regarded her.

"Who're you?" He asked.

"When we're on shore, alright?" Svetta said impatiently, her heart hammering as she treaded water. Her hands were becoming more numb and her muscles were aching from trying to stay afloat in the waves. She was glad that this guy hadn't been knocked unconscious when he hit the water, as she doubted she'd be able to get him to shore on her own, even with the driftwood as a flotation device.

"This way," she instructed, guiding the driftwood and kicking sideways through the current, the man kicking with her.

Getting into the path of the waves, Svetta could feel the cold draining her muscles of strength, and the man beside her took up a lot of the space on the flat driftwood.

Feeling the waves picking them up, Svetta had an idea.

"Turn to face the beach," she instructed, and together, they turned their piece of wood until the waves were rising behind them.

"So what's the plan?" The man asked her.

"Ride the waves to shore," Svetta answered simply, turning her head as another wave began to rise.

"Kick as hard as you can!" She ordered.

Together, the two of them kicked hard, and they felt themselves rise on the crest of the wave and practically fly towards the shore.

"Whoa!"

They came in too quickly and in seconds, the two of them were dumped onto the beach, spitting sand and seawater.

Laughing, Svetta shakily got to her feet, wiping off sand and wringing her clothes and hair free of sea water.

"Oh, my gosh," she exulted, "I've _never_ done anything like that before- what a rush!"

~..~..~..~..

Eret quickly got to his feet, thankful that he seemed uninjured, and considered it was probably a good thing that Skullcrusher hadn't heard his shout, or else he'd be caught out. His eyes travelled to the woman standing a short distance away and briefly considered running, for he could not afford to let this woman, clearly one of Svalgard's team, find out who he was.

However, that idea went out the window, for she turned around and approached him with concern.

"Are you alright?" She asked. "You're lucky you didn't hit your head on anything."

"I'm fine," Eret answered, suppressing a cough. "I'm used to the cold water."

"Sailor are you?" She asked, assessing him. Spotting the blue tattoos on his face, her eyes widened.

"You're a Celt," she gasped coming closer. "You're tattoos are similar to my uncle's. Are you one of his men? Those who joined my father during the battle of Dragon Glen?" She frowned. "What were you doing on the cliffs anyway?"

"Why did you save me?" Eret asked, avoiding the questions. "You don't know me."

"What did you expect me to do: let you drown when I knew I could've done something to help?" She asked incredulously. "You're a _life_."

Eret blinked before clearing his throat.

"Where are my manners?" He asked, trying to stop her from asking questions again. "Who do I have to thank for pulling me to shore?"

The woman considered him warily, but still remembered her own manners.

"I am Svetta, daughter of King Svalgard," she answered, nodding as regally as she could while still dripping seawater. "And you are?"

Eret felt his jaw drop. Svalgard's daughter...

"Svetta?" He echoed. What were the odds?

Svetta raised an eyebrow.

"You're name's Svetta too?" She asked wryly.

"No!" Eret said quickly, though there was no way he could let her know his name now.

"Thank you, Princess, for pulling me from the water," Eret continued. Thinking quickly, he remembered she had assumed he was a sailor. "My_ ship_ was capsized, and I washed ashore here. Trying to get my bearings, I tried to climb the cliffs," he gestured to the tall rock face nearby. "Didn't turn out how I planned," he finished.

Svetta stepped closer, studying the man's face carefully.

"I _do_ know you, don't I?" She asked. "My memory isn't the best, but I'm pretty good with faces and I _know_ I've seen you before."

Eret gulped, and considered calling Skullcrusher. He'd lost his chance to observe from a distance and he'd rather get out of here now when the only person to see him is one woman, albeit a royal, as opposed to a group of men clamouring to kill a dragon.

Svetta's eyes widened as she connected the dots in her mind.

"You're one of the dragon riders we saw this morning," she whispered, her expression hardening. "Your dragon was the one I saw fall."

"What dragon?" Eret gestured his arms wide, as he backed up a step. "Do you see a dragon anywhere?"

"What were you doing?" Svetta pressed, crouching down to claim a long, slender piece of driftwood. "Trying to lure my father's men over here with dragon bait and ambush them?"

"If you're planning on attacking a man you've just saved from drowning," Eret pointed to the driftwood Svetta was holding like a staff. "Why should I tell you anything?"

With a swift movement, despite her bad shoulder, Svetta swept Eret's legs out from under him.

"Whoa!" Eret exclaimed as his knees buckled and he landed on the damp sand. He made to get up, but the staff pressing into his throat prevented him from doing so.

"You are a Celt," Svetta stated.

"So are you, Princess," Eret shot back. "_Half_ Celt, at least."

"Exactly," Svetta smiled. "My mother was Queen Linden. _Your Queen_." She lessened the pressure of her makeshift shaft slightly. "So in my family's name, I will ask you one more time: Who are you? And where is your Dragon?"

Eret slowly got to his feet, Svetta holding his gaze the whole time. In the distance, he could see Svalgard's men rounding the cliffs and knew he either needed to get out of there, or risk being taken captive or worse.

"You want to know where my dragon is?" He asked. Removing a horn from his belt, Eret blew hard, the sound reverberating off the cliffs.

Hearing the sound from above the clouds, Skullcrusher dove, heading to where he heard his rider's call.

Svetta couldn't help shifting her gaze from the man before her to the great dragon that suddenly dropped below the cloud line.

"Great Goddess," she whispered.

Taking advantage of Svetta's distraction, Eret quickly disarmed her, throwing her to the ground.

"Wow, you _are_ a Celt," he grinned as he took off down the beach, where Skullcrusher picked him up and carried him high into the air.

"No!" Svetta cried, scrambling to her feet and giving chase.

However she was nowhere near fast enough to catch up with a flying dragon, and she soon was forced to stop and simply watch as the dragon and his rider disappeared into the cloud cover.

Still recovering from her icy plunge and the struggle to shore, and her shoulder wound bleeding once again thanks to her exertions, Svetta fell to her knees on the damp sand, panting hard and shaking.

'She'd messed up again...'

"Svetta!"

Turning, Svetta gulped as her father approached her, sword in hand, his eyes following the path the dragon rider had taken.

"What happened?" He demanded.

Svetta sighed.

"The Dragon didn't fall father," she reported dully as Sven stepped forward to help her to her feet. "It was set up. The dragon and his rider got away."

Svalgard pointed his sword at his daughter.

"You had a Dragon Rider right in front of you," he spoke slowly, "and you let him _escape_?"

Svetta gulped.

_Here we go..._

~..~..~..~..

Hiccup and Toothless climbed up from the ocean, Toothless tossing Flighty one of the fish he'd caught. The female Night Fury snatched up the fish licking her lips happily.

Hiccup had loved seeing how happy Toothless was, flying alongside Flighty, and was glad to help his dragon show off his best tricks. But he had to admit, he'd felt too much like a chaperone, and knew if he were Toothless, he'd want to have some time alone with the new girl. But, as Flighty was still too nervous to land in the village, he felt that someplace like these mountains would be a better place.

They'd been flying for some time, and Hiccup had learnt the previous night that Flighty needed more rest time than Toothless, so guided his dragon to an unpopulated part of the mountains on Berk, where the snow was deep. He and Astrid used to have dragon sled races here when they were younger, and it was one of their favourite spots on the island.

"Okay you two," Hiccup said as he dismounted. "Have fun here for a bit. Don't worry Flighty," he told the female Night Fury, who had landed, but was looking around nervously. "No people here. It's just us. If you need me," Hiccup pointed to a small group of rocks where they used to camp, "I'll be over here."

~..~..~..~..

Toothless watched Hiccup move away, wondering what his friend was doing, however as Hiccup shot a wink at him over his shoulder, Toothless got the impression that Hiccup felt he was doing him a favour, leaving him alone with Flighty.

He froze, as he just realised what Hiccup's favour was.

_He was alone with Flighty_

He looked over at the female Night Fury in question, who was studying the snow covered branch of a nearby pine tree. Rising up on her hind legs, Flighty patted at the branch, causing snow to tumble down on her head. Shaking her head to clear it of snow, Flighty then began to bat at the snowflakes now floating around her.

Watching this normally skittish dragon acting so playfully made Toothless laugh, though unfortunately, Flighty heard him and shot him a sharp look.

Averting his gaze quickly, Toothless pretended to have been looking out over the mountains, trying to make himself look as proud and regal as possible, as is befitting an Alpha dragon.

Flighty shook her head, calling his act, and swished her tail forward, showering Toothless with powdery snow.

Starting with surprise, Toothless shook himself free of snow before turning face his assailant.

Laughter emanated from Flighty's throat and Toothless' eyes widened, for it was the first time he'd heard her laugh.

Flighty crouched low over her front legs playfully before swishing more snow towards Toothless with her tail and bounding away up the mountain.

Oh, she wanted to play, did she? Well, Toothless was up for the challenge. He couldn't let her get away with swishing snow at the Alpha, after all.

Diving under the snow, Toothless tunnelled through the white powder, following the path he'd seen Flighty take.

Hiding behind another tree, Flighty looked back down the mountain, searching for Toothless, but he was nowhere to be found.

Creeping cautiously out from behind the tree, Flighty cast her gaze around the area. Where did he go?

Suddenly, snow seemed to explode from the ground nearby, and Flighty jumped out into the clearing as Toothless surprised her, leaping up from where he'd been hiding under the snow.

Toothless laughed at the shocked look on Flighty's face. He'd been right beside her and _she hadn't noticed_ and was doubly grateful for the extra stealth training Astrid and Hiccup had the Academy go through over the past month. Though he did like the fact that Flighty had been looking for him...

Recovered, Flighty began pawing at the snow beneath her feet as if readying for a charge and Toothless crouched.

_Ready when you are. _He thought, another laugh building in his throat. This was going to be fun.

~..~..~..~..

Hiccup tried to smother his laughter as he peeked around the rocks and trees of his old campsite to watch the two dragons play, chasing each other through the snow. Flighty would charge and Toothless would leap over her head, flicking a tree branch as he did so, showering her with snow, before Flighty would hide until Toothless went looking for her, and Flighty would shoot a pile of snow at the back of his head with a well timed swish of her tail.

Hiccup knew he probably shouldn't be watching, he had wanted to give them privacy, after all. But Hiccup had believed that Toothless was alone and to see his friend so happy with another Night Fury reminded him of how important it was to have people you cared about.

He had Astrid.

Hiccup just wanted Toothless to have someone too.

Eventually, Flighty slowed down and collapsed in the snow. She had eaten better than she ever had back on her old island, thanks to Toothless, but a lifetime of eating frugally meant that her muscles needed more time to adjust than her stomach.

Toothless approached carefully and regurgitated half a fish he'd saved from earlier, which Flighty ate gratefully, bumping her head against his to say thank you.

Seeing the sun beginning to travel from early afternoon to mid afternoon, Hiccup felt it was time to head back and reluctantly approached the two dragons.

"Sorry to interrupt, you two," Hiccup gained the dragons' attention and Flighty jumped slightly, relaxing once more when she recognised Hiccup. "But I think we've both avoided our responsibilities in the village long enough, Bud," Hiccup told Toothless. "You've got to check up on your people, and I've got to check up on mine."

Sighing slightly, Toothless got to his feet and allowed Hiccup to climb on his back.

"First stop: The Academy," Hiccup told his friend. "Let's see what the others found out about Svalgard."

~..~..~..~..

Author's note: So, what did you think?

I know that in the Viking world, the women were allowed to become warriors just as much as the men, but in many societies of the time women weren't held in equal terms and I wanted to show that through Svetta's lifestyle.

King Svalgard I wanted to make a really arrogant man who thought everything and everyone was beneath him. Sven, his son is his more prized child as, well, he's the _son_. And, like many marriages of that time, Svalgard only married as part of a business arrangement and to ensure an heir to his throne.

Sven, I wanted to show as 'his father's son' but I also wanted to show that he does genuinely love his sister and tries to look out for her when he can, but is too focused on the path he has been put on to be free to really see anything outside of it.

Svetta is a princess, true, but her life has been anything but a fairytale. And I wanted to show in this chapter how much she yearns for her father's approval yet is still actually rather scared of him. I'm basing her loosely on how Hiccup was in the beginning of the first Httyd movie: just wanting to be accepted by her community and trying to what's expected of her, even if it's not really what she wants to do.

Brom, as mentioned, is Svetta and Sven's uncle on their mother's side. And while he still has pride of his own family heritage, he joined Svalgard to help him take over his homeland. I've got some ideas as to what happened during that time, and will explain in future chapters- I love having some suspense in stories: makes it fun!

In the Httyd 2 movie we get introduced to Eret. We're not given much of his back story, though the blue tattoos on his face remind me of Gaul or Celtic (same thing? Not really sure). Dragons were an important aspect of Celtic life and were highly revered and I was wondering why Eret would move so quickly from 'Dragon trapper' to 'Dragon Rider'. I felt like Eret had always liked dragons and just felt that trapping them was the better option to killing them.

I have given indications/hints of a back story in this chapter for Eret as well as the other new characters, and I'll be explaining more in future chapters, don't worry. I'd like to touch more on the Celtic beliefs regarding dragons in this story and hopefully everything will come together the way I want it to. Although, the story may just write itself and go on a different tangent- who knows?

As for Toothless and Flighty... I really wanted them to spend some time together, but Dragons, I'd imagine would spend most of their 'courting' time flying. So, I'd imagine Toothless would be rather frustrated at not being able to fly without Hiccup's help.

Still, Flighty's been so stressed for a lot of the story, I just wanted her to have the chance to have fun, as I feel Night Furies are wont to do. And one of my favourite scenes in Httyd 2 was when Toothless was playing in the snow with Hiccup, Valka and Cloudjumper, so I wanted to give him a similar scene with Flighty, so... Snow Fight on the mountains!

Please leave a review!


	6. Proposals and preparations

Author's note: Hi everybody! I loved writing this chapter and I really hope you like it.

~..~..~..~..

"Okay, everybody, great class today!" Fishlegs called after the teens as his class left for the day. "See you all tomorrow!"

"Whew," Fishlegs leaned against a crate, wiping his brow. "I don't know how Hiccup does it." He reached out a hand to touch Meatlug's nose, the Gronkle looking as tired as he was. "Do you, girl?"

Fishlegs had been looking forward to teaching his first class at the Academy, but it had been nothing like he'd imagined.

For the past eight years, practically everyone on Berk had their own dragon, but unless you were part of the Academy, your dragon was more of a pet than a partner. So, Fishlegs had decided to start off by seeing how much his groups of students knew about caring for dragons and about their own dragon's breed before taking them through anything serious.

There had been five students in his first class, all in their teens.

There had been Snoutlout's cousin, Gustav, with his Monstrous Nightmare: FangedHook

Frieda, with her Grapple-Grounder: Freya

A hulking boy named Dustin, and his Snafflefang: Deathwish

Alva and her Scauldron: Waverider

And Astrid's cousin Balder, and his Deadly Nadder: Bragi

And _none_ of them had been very interested in what Fishlegs had to say.

Gustav started it off by announcing to the other teens that, as he had been 'training' with his dragon longer than anyone of their group, he should be the leader on their first mission.

Fishlegs had tried to regain control by asking each Rider-in-training to demonstrate how they bond with their dragons, as, he had explained, the bond between human and Dragon is the most important part of being a dragon rider.

Balder and Alva had both done well, showing how they fed their dragons, Balder even feeding Bragi chicken, saying Astrid had told him Nadders loved it more than fish.

Frieda had showed how she bonded with her quick-moving Grapple Grounder by playing catch using Freya's favourite toy (a metal hoop). However, when Freya tried to catch her toy, she accidently knocked over a barrel full of live fish caught that morning, and two eels turned out to be among the catch, slithering along the academy floor.

The dragons had gone _nuts._

FangedHook burst into flame, trying to shoot fire at the eels slithering wetly across the ground forcing everyone to scatter for fear of getting burnt. Deathwish had tried to use his bludgeon-like spiked tail to hit the eels, missing and striking Waverider in the head, who shot boiling water in retaliation, missing Deathwish but hitting Fangedhook, putting out the Monstrous Nightmare's fire.

"Okay!" Fishlegs used the upside down barrel to trap the two eels as the dragons began snapping up all the scattered fish, now steaming after the combination of fire and boiling water. "I think it's time we move on to basic command training."

However that didn't work out much better than the bonding.

Balder and Gustav both thought that, as their cousins were already in the Academy, and as a result, they'd been getting training lessons on the side as they'd grown up, they didn't _have_ to go through basic training.

Fishlegs started by trying getting them into groups to practice to teach their dragons to drop items and fetch on command. Frieda's dragon was good at 'fetch' but often refused to drop the item she'd retrieved.

Dustin just wanted to start battle training, and while Fishlegs' back was turned, showing Frieda how to encourage Freya to let go by scratching her under the chin, along with the command 'drop', Dustin set up a couple of targets, ordering Deathwish to fire and nearly setting fire to the whole arena when his dragon's brightly coloured fire went wild.

"Dustin! You were supposed to be practising basic commands with Gustav and Balder!" Fishlegs reprimanded, panicking slightly as he dodged the flames.

"But that was _boring_," Dustin stated matter-of-factly.

Fishlegs and Meatlug were quick to grab buckets of water but Alva simply ordered Waverider to squirt, and everyone had to scatter as, once again, the arena became covered in boiling water.

Fishlegs frowned at Alva.

"What?" Alva questioned, shrugging her shoulders. "I put out the fire."

"With boiling water that could have _burned all of us_ if we hadn't got out of the way?" Fishlegs told her.

"Oh right," she smiled sheepishly as she tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "Sorry."

"Why are we wasting time with 'drop' and 'fetch'?" Gustav asked, folding his arms across his chest. "From what I've heard, there's going to be an attack on Berk soon. We need to learn how to _fight_ with our dragons."

"And you _will_," Fishlegs told him, "when you're_ ready_. And I can clearly see," he gestured to the destruction around the arena. "You're not there yet."

"But-"

"_No buts_, Frieda," Fishlegs told the girl, who tugged sullenly at the end of one of her two strawberry blonde braids. "You have to be able to trust your dragons in battle, and they have to be able to trust _you_. Why are we focusing on 'drop' and fetch'?" Fishlegs repeated Gustav's question to the group. "Because they are both very _useful _commands, not just in daily life but in battle also. If you lose your axe or your sword in battle, your dragon can fetch it for you. If you fall off your dragon in battle, your dragon can catch you. If your dragons are carrying nets, rocks or cargo, they can drop it at the proper time. _You_ might just think that basic training is pointless," Fishlegs told his group firmly. "But it's called basic training for a reason: It the _foundation_ on which all of your other training is built on. And like a house, if there's no strong foundation, _everything else will collapse_."

After that, the students had listened better overall, but by the time they left, congratulating each other and giving high-fives, Fishlegs was exhausted.

"Fishlegs!"

He looked around to see Valka swooping in on Cloudjumper.

"I saw the kids leaving: How did your first class go?" She asked eagerly, before looking around at the sopping, charred walls of the arena. "What happened here?"

"Oh, it was a nightmare. A _Monstrous Nightmare_," Fishlegs answered wearily, collapsing onto the floor next to Meatlug. "And a Snafflefang. _And _a Scauldron... and a-"

"Hard day?" Valka finished sympathetically.

"Yeah," Fishlegs answered. "I don't know how you and Hiccup do it."

Valka laughed as she helped Fishlegs to his feet.

"Teaching is a very difficult but rewarding job," she told him. "But children have their own minds as well. "

"You're telling me," Fishlegs muttered. "None of them were very interested in the lesson, they just wanted to fly and blow stuff up."

"So I see," Valka cast another glance around the arena. "So why not _use_ that in your next lesson?" She suggested.

"But they're _not ready_ for flying yet," Fishlegs objected. "Look at the arena!"

"To train a dragon, you need to _understand_ it," Valka reminded Fishlegs. "And a dragon is at their most natural state when flying. If your students can see how well, _or how badly_, they perform with their dragons while flying, perhaps they'll understand the importance of basic training more. And perhaps," she added, "they'll get a greater understanding and appreciation for their dragons as _partners_, rather than pets."

"Okay," Fishlegs nodded slowly, considering. "It's worth a try. Thanks Valka. So," he changed the subject, "how was _your_ day?"

"Oh, I would've preferred to be teaching with you," Valka commented. "I've lived with dragons for twenty years, but that didn't prepare me for running a village. The fishing boats are well on their way to be mended, but settling trading disputes and dealing with _people_..." Valka shook her head wryly. "I do _not_ envy Hiccup his duty as Chief."

"Looks like I'm not the only one who had a hard day," Fishlegs smiled.

"I'll tell you about a hard day!" Valka and Fishlegs looked up to see Snotlout and the Twins swoop through the arena doors.

"We've been flying for _hours_, and still haven't found Svalgard's ships!" Snotlout dismounted stiffly. "I thought I was going to fly off the edge of the world!"

"You think you had it bad," Tuffnut told Snotlout. "I had to spend the whole time listening to Ruffnut rambling about her _guy_ problems."

"Hey!" Ruffnut punched her brother on his arm as hard as possible, sending him falling off Belch's head.

"What problems, babe?" Snotlout asked, stepping towards her. "I thought we were doing alright."

"If you want to talk, darling," Fishlegs interjected. "I'm _right here_ for you."

Ruffnut groaned dramatically, clutching her head in frustration.

"Well, the odds are changing in the pool," Tuffnut reported as he stood up. "I've now got the ratio between Snotlout and Fishlegs at...um..."

"Do you even know what ratios _are_?" Ruffnutt interrupted.

"_No_," Tuffnut answered, "but it's used in betting and sounds cool."

"Hey guys!"

Hiccup, Flighty and Toothless came gliding through the doors of the academy to land on the floor.

"Hiccup!" Valka greeted her son fondly. "How's Astrid?"

"Still unconscious, last I checked," he answered grimly. "I'm going to check in on her again, but I first had to catch up with all of you." He turned to his mother. "The fishing boats?"

"On their way to being mended, Chief," Valka reported with a smile. "I've organised for some of our tidal dragons to help with the catch to compensate for the loss of three ships."

"Nice work, mom," Hiccup smiled. "Fishlegs? How were our new recruits on their first day of training?"

"Well," Fishlegs began, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "They've got a lot of enthusiasm," he gestured to the wreckage around the arena. "But, not much focus."

"Sounds familiar," Hiccup commented wryly, shooting a glance at the twins and Snotlout.

"What?" They asked in unison.

"What about you guys?" Hiccup asked. "Find anything?"

"Only lots and lots of ocean," Snotlout grumbled.

"I found out that girls think waaay too much about stuff, "Tuffnut supplied, only to be thumped by his sister again.

"What about Eret?" Hiccup glanced around, not seeing him. "Is he back yet."

"Not yet," Fishlegs reported.

"Oh, no," Ruffnut quickly mounted barf once more. "Come on, Barf!"

"Whoa, wait!" Tuffnut pulled on Belch's neck. "Where do you think you're going with my dragon, sis?"

"Well, we have to go find Eret," Ruff stated plainly. "So let's _go_."

"_No one_ needs to go _anywhere_ to get _Eret_," Snotlout stated as if he had a bad taste in his mouth.

"For a change, I agree with Snotlout," Hiccup said calmly.

"Really?"

"Really," Hiccup stated, pointing upward, "'cause he's just coming in."

Eret swooped in, his Rumblehorn's bulk barely making it through the doorway.

"Afternoon all," Eret greeted as he dismounted.

"Eret!" Ruffnut made to run towards him, but was tripped up by Tuffnut. Furious, she tackled her twin brother instead.

Ignoring the twins' usual antics, Hiccup approached the former trapper, seeing the singes , sand and sea water on his clothes that hadn't yet dried from the flight.

"I'm guessing you found something?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah," Eret nodded. "The Svalgards have moored their ships on a small island south east of here for repairs."

"That shouldn't be too difficult," Snotlout was ready for action. "We just fly by and blast the rest of their ships to pieces before they can regroup."

"Oh, wait," Eret cautioned, "there's more."

"More blasting?" Tuffnut asked with interest from under his sister's boot.

"More _ships_," Eret emphasised. "It wasn't just those five ships we saw this morning. And it wasn't just prince Sven. King Svalgard _himself_ is there, as well as the Princess, and they have a whole _Armada _behind them."

"That... would require a lot of blasting," Ruffnut commented thoughtfully.

"I think we'll have to try a different strategy," Hiccup told her. "If they've come with an Armada, they must mean business. But if these are _royals_ we're dealing with," he continued pensively, "maybe we can have a council?"

"And _then_ we blast them?" Tuffnut asked, as he got to his feet.

Hiccup sighed, deciding not to answer Tuff's query.

"I'm the Chief," Hiccup reminded them all. "And as Chief, it's my duty to do anything I can to keep my people safe. If these are royals coming into our lands, it's tradition that the leaders meet for discussion." He took a breath. "We should at least _try_ to find a diplomatic resolution to this."

"Hiccup," Eret stressed. "I know you're a peacekeeper, but trust me: there's _no_ diplomatic solution to Svalgard. I saw him take over my homeland as a kid: everything that stood in his way..." Eret shook his head. "This guy is _ruthless_."

"I have to try," Hiccup countered. "Even a _ruthless_ king is still bound by the customs and obligations of his station. He'll _have_ to meet with me."

"We'll come with you," Valka smiled, stepping forward, "as your envoy."

"Cool!" Ruff cheered. "What's an envoy?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes, considering taking only his mother, Fishlegs and Eret with him.

"Rest your dragons, guys," Hiccup told everyone. "And make sure you look your best for tomorrow, for we need to make a good impression on this King Svalgard."

He turned to Eret

"I want to know more about what you saw on that island," he told him. "Meet me in the Great Hall as soon as you can. Right now," he mounted Toothless once more, "I have to check on Astrid."

~..~..~..~..

Toothless touched down outside Gothi's hut as the late afternoon light cast deep shadows across the village. After making sure all the dragons were fed, they left Flighty at the academy, who seemed to be slowly getting used to the other human riders, as they flew over the village to the Elder's hut on the furthest cliff overlooking the harbour.

Hiccup dismounted as Cloudjumper landed beside him helping Valka to the ground. Valka was concerned for Astrid as well as wanting to support her son. He had asked to stop by Astrid's home to speak with her family. Hiccup hadn't told Valka his plan, but she could read it in his eyes and was happy to stand by him as he spoke to Astrid's family, laughing slightly when they hugged him.

Now, seeing how nervous her son was as he hurried to Gothi's door, Valka had to shake her head.

"Don't worry, Toothless," Valka calmed the Night Fury down, for he'd picked up on his friend's anxiety. "Hiccup will do us proud tonight." She looked up at the sky. "Won't he, Stoick?" she finished in a whisper.

"Gothi?" Hiccup hurried into the hut, where he saw the Elder stoking a fire, where a cauldron of soup was bubbling. "How is she?"

The Elder smiled and gestured over to where Astrid still lay on the bed, fast asleep.

"Astrid?" Hiccup moved forward to resume his seat beside her, taking up her hand. Studying her face, Hiccup noticed she looked much more relaxed than when he'd last seen her. No fever burned her brow, meaning there was no infection and her breathing was steady, if a little laboured.

Hiccup smiled. Astrid was going to be okay.

"_Thank you_ Gothi," Hiccup turned to view the Elder gratefully and the old woman nodded fondly, proud that her care had paid off.

Hearing a faint moan, Hiccup turned back as Astrid finally stirred in her sleep.

"Astrid?" Hiccup placed both his hands over hers as he watched over her.

Slowly, Astrid opened her eyes. It looked like it took a great deal of effort.

"Hey," she greeted Hiccup faintly, her voice hoarse.

"Oh, Astrid," Hiccup breathed in relief, reaching for the water pitcher. "You're awake, thank Thor."

"How long was I out?" She asked faintly as Hiccup brought a cup to her lips.

"All day," he told her. "Don't _ever_ scare me like that again."

She smiled faintly.

"I'll do my best," she told him.

"Astrid dear," Valka came forward, unable to help herself. "I'm so glad to see you're awake."

"Where am I?" She asked, trying to sit up only to gasp in pain and collapse back onto the bed.

"Easy, Astrid," Hiccup tried to prevent his stubborn girlfriend from doing more damage to herself. "You're at Gothi's."

Astrid's weary eyes searched the hut until she spotted the Elder approaching her with a steaming bowl.

"_Thank you_, Gothi," Astrid said gratefully and the old woman smiled at her before passing the bowl to Hiccup, along with a spoon, gesturing to Astrid.

Hiccup glanced at his mother and she took her cue.

"Gothi," Valka gained the Elder's attention. "Could show me your herb garden? There are many herbs on this island that could help dragons as well, and I'd love to know how you cultivate such a steady supply."

As his mother led the Elder out into the late afternoon, Hiccup loaded a spoon with warm fish soup.

"Alright young lady," he told Astrid, "you need to eat something."

"I can feed myself," Astrid protested, trying to claim the spoon but failing.

"Oh really?' Hiccup asked her, placing the bowl to one side so that he could help her sit up more comfortably in the bed.

"Astrid," Hiccup cautioned firmly as the stubborn woman tried to reach for the spoon again. "You are _wounded_. You need to _heal_. And you _will _let me take care of you before you do yourself more damage."

Astrid stared at him.

"I promise to tell everyone that you sat up and ate on your own," Hiccup added.

"Alright," Astrid agreed weakly and Hiccup was quick to pick up the soup bowl again before she could change her mind.

As Hiccup fed Astrid her soup, he felt his own throat tighten with nerves. Unable to speak, he continued to feed Astrid in silence until she had finished the entire bowl.

"So what did I miss? "Astrid asked as Hiccup placed the bowl to one side.

"King Svalgard is a Dragon killer and has a whole armada harboured south east of here," Hiccup explained slowly. "I'm going to arrange a meeting with him, and as he is a royal, he'll be obligated to agree."

"A diplomatic mission?" Astrid asked, her eyes still a little foggy. "Do you really think that will work?"

"I'm the Chief," Hiccup sighed. "I have to at least _try _diplomacy first. Svalgard is a Dragon killer, like this whole village used to be for _three hundred_ years. If I can change the perspective of an entirevillage, then _surely_ I can change the perspective of one man."

Astrid couldn't help smiling. This was so Hiccup.

"I'll go with you," she told him, trying to sit up further, grimacing.

"Oh, no you don't," Hiccup gently but firmly pushed her back onto the pillows. "You need to recover."

"It'll take more than one measly arrow to keep me down," Astrid told him, panting slightly with effort.

"I know," Hiccup smiled, though his eyes were serious. "But I'd prefer you wait until you're fully healed before you try and rush off to battle again."

"Is that an order, Chief?" Astrid's lips quirked up in a smile.

"That's a request from the man who _loves you_," Hiccup told her and he swallowed as a lump formed in his throat once more.

"Watching you fall, Astrid," Hiccup began earnestly. "It scared me to death. I...I prayed to the Gods to save you, 'cause...I just couldn't accept the idea of losing you."

"Hey," Astride raised a hand to cup Hiccup's cheek and he automatically turned into her touch. "You haven't lost me. I'm right here." She smiled. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

"I don't _want_ to get rid of you," Hiccup said quickly and Astrid's eyes widened at the intensity in his voice. "Have I not made myself clear? I want you to _stay_ with me. I want..."

Breaking off, Hiccup clutched his head, raking his fingers through his hair.

"Oh, jeez," Hiccup shook his head wryly. "I'm sorry." Seeing the confused look in Astrid's eyes, he elaborated.

"I've been going over and over and _over_ what I wanted to say, in my head, and... nothing's really coming out as well as I'd hoped." He laughed nervously. "I've battle the _Red Death_ and faced an _entire_ _army_ of Drago's mind-controlled Dragons, and yet I'm struggling to tell the woman I love how much I love her."

Glancing at Astrid's face, he watched her expression soften.

"Hiccup," she whispered.

Moving to sit facing her on the bed, Hiccup gathered every bit of his courage he could.

"I'm sorry, Astrid," he began, taking hold of her hand once again. "I had a whole speech planned, yet when it comes down to it, I can only remember the last part. I hope it'll be enough?"

Unable to speak, Astrid slowly nodded.

Hiccup took a deep breath.

"I love you, Astrid," Hiccup began. "I can handle the Red Death and I can handle an army of dragons and I can even handle the threat of an armada attack... But only if I have _you_ with me." Hiccup swallowed as his nerves threatened to overwhelm him, but he pushed through in determination.

"Will you marry me, Astrid Hofferson?" There, he'd finally said it.

Astrid appeared speechless and Hiccup was forced to wait, hoping she would give an answer soon, for the suspense was killing him.

Suddenly, Astrid came to life and she punched him in the arm.

"Ow!" He exclaimed. That had _not _been the reaction he'd been hoping for.

"It's _about time_ you asked me!" Astrid reprimanded him, tears filling her eyes.

"Do I take your punch as your answer?" Hiccup asked warily.

"Of course not," Astrid wiped her eyes, laughing. "_This_ is."

Grabbing the front of his vest, she pulled him in for a kiss.

"Yes," she breathed as their lips parted.

~..~..~..~..

"She said '_YES_'!"

Valka laughed as she heard her son's triumphant cry and led Gothi back up the path to the front of the house. The old woman hadn't been fooled by Valka's request to see her garden, but obliged her nonetheless and the pair came around the front to see Hiccup hugging Toothless ecstatically.

"She said 'yes', Buddy," Hiccup's joy was rubbing off on Toothless and the dragon began to prance around, caught up in his friend's excitement. "Isn't that amazing? How _lucky_ am I right now?"

"Pretty lucky, I'd say," Valka said delightedly, gaining her son's attention.

"Mom!" Hiccup caught sight of her and rushed to embrace her. "Astrid said-"

"_Yes_," Valka chuckled as her son lifted her up happily. "I heard. Oh, Hiccup," she held him tightly. "I'm _so happy_ for you, son."

"She said 'yes'," Hiccup repeated, raking his fingers through his hair. "Oh, Gods, I feel like I'm flying right now. Wahoo!" He cheered.

Catching Gothi's raised eyebrow, Hiccup was quick to compose himself.

"Uh, sorry Gothi," he apologised, ducking his head. Whooping and cheering was really only appropriate behaviour for a chief if they were heading into battle. "I'm just happy. And I have asked Astrid's family and they approve," he assured the Elder that he'd acted appropriately. "And, I hope you do too."

Gesturing the young chief to come forward, Gothi placed her fingertips on his forehead, giving him her blessing.

"_Thank you_," he told her in relief. For he'd heard of marriages being challenged by either the family or the Elder, and didn't want to cause any grief.

"Congratulations, son," Valka embraced her boy once more. "Your father would be so proud."

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded. "Actually, I think I should probably go tell him before the others know."

Smiling in understanding, Valka nodded.

"I'll see you back at the house." She said.

"No," Hiccup corrected. "The Great Hall. I want you to be there when Eret gives his report."

"Alright, son," Valka nodded and Hiccup quickly mounted his Night Fury and together they launched themselves off the cliff.

"Let's go see dad, Toothless," Hiccup told his dragon and the Night Fury obligingly turned and glided through the fading light towards the great stone statue that had been carved in honour of the great chieftain, Stoick the Vast.

Ever since the statue had been carved into the cliff side, this had become Hiccup's favourite place to come whenever he wanted to talk to his father. In his first few months as Chief, Hiccup would come here every day at sunset as part of his evening patrol, to talk to his dad. True, Hiccup knew that he was actually talking to a statue, but he hoped that, just as his father had always watched over his village, Stoick the Vast was watching over them all still, from the halls of Valhalla. And who knows, Hiccup considered, maybe here, where his statue continued to watch over the village, his father could hear him...

"Hey dad," Hiccup greeted as Toothless alighted on Stoick's head and helped his rider climb down to the stone shoulder, where he sat down, looking over the village with his father. "Boy, has it been an eventful day. First, mom and I found a new island and found a new Night Fury, a female who Toothless is winning over, I believe." He added with a grin. "Then this morning, Astrid got _wounded _while we were defending our fishing ships from being attacked. I was so scared for her I thought my heart was going to stop."

Hiccup sighed.

"Thankfully, she's going to be alright," Hiccup assured his father. "But it made me realise that...she's too important to me to risk losing."

He looked over to see his father's stone eyes, wishing they were real.

"I proposed to her today," Hiccup told him slowly, a smile tugging at his lips again. "And she actually said _yes_."

Hiccup's smile grew just imagining his father's reaction.

"_Congratulations son,"_ Hiccup stood up, copying his father's voice. _"I knew this day would come. Astrid is a fine match for you and I couldn't be prouder."_

"Thanks dad," Hiccup continued in his own voice. "I just can't believe how lucky I am that she said yes."

"_Well of course she said 'yes' son,"_ Hiccup knew his father had wanted them married for a long time. _"You're the pride of Berk, the chief to boot and she loves you: how could she say 'no'? I look forward to the wedding and naming the grandkids!"_

Hiccup froze as that last sentence came out of his mouth, unexpectedly.

"Whoa," he whispered.

~..~..~..~..

Eret entered the Great Hall and was welcomed by the smell of wood smoke from the central fire, mixing in with the smell of lamb roasting on the spit.

Casting his eyes around the room, he noticed that Hiccup hadn't yet arrived, so he made his way through the various people in the hall, grabbed a tankard and got himself a drink from the many barrels stacked on the nearby table before getting himself a plate and getting off a chunk of the roasted lamb and taking a seat where he could watch the doors.

Chewing the lamb, Eret tried to organise his thoughts before making his report to the young Chief. Where Svalgards ships were and their numbers and weapons, or what he could see, Eret was comfortable reporting.

However, he wasn't sure whether his encounter with Svalgard's daughter. The princess had seen his face, his dragon and could recognise him again, but he hadn't given his name.

Although, he considered, she _could_ still remember him. Like her, he'd only been a young child at the time, about five or six, around the Battle of Dragon Glen. Her mother, Queen Linden, had ruled over the Celtic lands and his family had been in her service...

"Hello Eret."

Starting slightly, Eret looked up as Valka sat down at his table with her own plate.

"Sorry to interrupt your thoughts," she apologised.

"No, it's fine," he answered. "Where's the chief?"

"Hiccup will be along shortly," she told him, smiling. "And I'm happy to report that Astrid has woken up and should make a full recovery."

"That's great," he smiled. He held a great amount of respect for the woman who had showed him how amazing dragons really were, even if it did start out with him being kidnapped.

By the time Hiccup arrived in the hall and made his way over to their table, Eret was on his second serving of lamb and Valka had just finished her first.

"Sorry I'm late," Hiccup said as he took out the map he always carried with him, folding it out on the table.

"It's good to hear Astrid's alright," Eret was quick to offer his support to the chief.

"Thanks," Hiccup smiled and Eret had the impression there was more to his happiness than just Astrid's recovery, for the man was practically glowing.

"Shall we tell everyone tonight?" Valka asked eagerly.

Hiccup shook his head.

"Tomorrow," he instructed, accepting a plate someone passed him.

"Tell us what?" Eret pressed and Hiccup was clearly fighting a smile.

"_Tomorrow_," he repeated firmly. "Now," continued as he studied the map before him "Where was this island where you found Svalgard's armada, Eret?"

Studying the map for a few moments, getting his bearings, Eret pointed.

"That's only a couple of hours flight from here," Valka murmured.

"But several hours by ship," Hiccup reminded them. "What did you find, Eret?"

Eret took a breath.

"They have their ships moored for repairs on the Eastern side of the island," he pointed to the small cove where he'd seen the damaged ships docked. "The King's tent is on the beach, and the rest of the armada is anchored in the surrounding waters."

"How did you approach?" Hiccup pressed. "What did you see?"

" Skullcrusher and I approached it from the North-Western side," Eret drew his finger along the parchment to show his trajectory. "I was just doing a scout of the island and only saw the ships when we crested the cliffs."

"Did they see you?" Hiccup asked in concern.

"Uh, yeah," Eret felt he should admit it. "They shot at us with some kind of flaming catapult, but we were able to dodge it."

"Tell me about the catapult," Hiccup asked him a frown creasing his brow.

"Basic catapult," Eret informed, "but they loaded it with what looked like a boulder covered in this black material which they lit on fire. It went up in flames so fast," he told Hiccup, "it couldn't have been regular material. It had to have been soaked in something."

Hiccup nodded, not liking the sound of these new catapults.

"You said that Svalgard took over your homeland, Eret?" He asked slowly, raising his eyes to see the former trapper becoming rather nervous.

"Yes," Eret answered slowly. "but I was only a kid at the time," he added. "Not even seven. I barely remember anything useful, except the stories my dad told me."

"What stories?" Hiccup asked him.

Eret clenched his jaw, reluctant to answer.

"Eret," Hiccup waited until the older man met his gaze. "We need to know everything we can about this guy before we meet him tomorrow. We have to know what to expect. Otherwise," he continued seriously, "Svalgard will take over Berk just like your homeland."

"We have our dragons to help protect us," Valka reminded them.

"That won't make a difference," Eret told them quietly. "There were many dragons living amongst the Celtic Isles. And after Svalgard married Queen Linden, he killed them all."

Hiccup's eyes darted to Eret's face and he'd never seen him look so serious.

Eret took a deep breath.

'_Here we go...'_

"My father was a member of Queen Linden's royal guard," Eret began quietly. "The Celts highly revered the dragons that lived in the wilds and our culture reflected that, celebrating their power in stories and legends. Queen Linden was much loved throughout the lands, as was her younger brother, Brom. But no one rode dragons," he added. "The dragons were considered wise and powerful beings, and to ride them was considered to degrade them to the rank of, say, a horse."

"Another culture that loved dragons?" Valka wondered.

"So what happened?" Hiccup asked.

"Linden's parents were killed while travelling over the sea for a diplomatic mission, when the ship was sunk," Eret continued sombrely. "As the eldest, Linden was to take the thone, but, being a woman, the law said she had to marry first. So, the royal council convened, envoy's were sent out, and, Svalgard was married to her within a week."

'How romantic,' Valka thought sarcastically, frowning, but kept her mouth shut, not wanting to interrupt.

"As soon as the wedding was over, Svalgard began wresting control of the Queen's council and her lands," Eret continued. "She fought fiercely, but soon her supporters in the council began dying mysteriously, and Svalgard replaced them with his own men."

Hiccup swallowed, beginning to see where this was going.

"Once he'd taken over the royal council," Eret continued, "Svalgard began changing laws, especially those regarding the lands where the dragons lived and nested, which we collectively called 'Dragon Glen." He swallowed. "Soon, he was sending his men into the areas where they lived. Queen Linden and her supporters travelled to the areas of Dragon Glen, warning the drgagon leaders of the threat and urging them to flee or go into hiding. But they chose to stay and defend their home. My father was amongst those who still supported the Queen and joined their efforts to defend the dragons and regain the throne from this... _tyrant_ who had wrested the power from the rightful ruler. Still, within a few years, there was barely a dragon left on the Celtic isle."

"What happened to Linden?" Valka asked slowly.

Eret took another breath.

"She had succeeded in encouraging many of the dragons from our homeland to flee," Eret supplied. "And my dad told me that one night, she left secretly by boat, accompanied by her daughter, Svetta- who was about five, I guess- the Queen's brother, Brom, my father and one other member of the Royal guard. Dad said they were looking for the Chaos Dragons."

"Chaos dragons?" Hiccup repeated.

"We also called them 'Dark Dragons'" Eret added, "and it was Queen Linden's symbol. Chaos dragons are said to be jet black, and so secretive no one had ever seen them, except the current King or Queen of the Celts who were the only ones who the Chaos Dragons entrusted with knowledge of them. Legend says," he continued, "that if a Chaos Dragon was ever seen, chaos would reign and a kingdom would fall."

"Do you think she went to find these Chaos Dragons to ask for help?" Hiccup asked.

Eret nodded.

"That's what dad thought, though he was never told details. However, it didn't work anyway," he added, shaking his head in confusion. "My dad had been ordered to stay with the other guard in the boat, while The Queen, Brom and Svetta went into the Chaos Dragon's home. After waiting for ages, suddenly dad heard an explosion and Brom came running back to the boat, carrying Svetta saying the Queen had been killed and ordered them out of there."

"Killed?" Valka repeated.

"The story goes that she was killed by the very dragons she'd gone to ask for help," Eret nodded. "It gets really..._chaotic_, after that," he continued wryly. "With the queen dead, Svalgard was free to take complete control. He either hunted down and killed the Queen's supporters, bullied and threatened them into joining him, or sent them into exile. My father was sentenced to death, but he was able to get us out, and we ran, with a bounty on our heads and labelled as traitors." Eret's jaw was clenched tight.

"When Drago passed through the area a couple of years after that, amassing a dragon army, dad took up the job as a trapper, as we were barely surviving and it paid well when you got a good haul. When my parents died," he continued, "I took up trapping myself, to earn a living," he shrugged. "I figured: at least Drago wanted dragons _alive_, so he was better than Svalgard."

Hiccup took a deep breath. Looking around, the hall had become quiet as many of the people had left.

"What do you know about the daughter, Svetta?" Valka asked curiously. "Did you mention earlier that there were two children?"

"Yeah," Eret nodded. "Her twin brother, Sven."

"But why would Linden only take her daughter to the Chaos dragons?" Valka wondered. "Why not take her son as well? Why take her child at all?"

"No idea," Eret admitted, shrugging. "Svalgard seems to prefer his son to his daughter, however. His daughter is apparently more of a Celt than she likes to let on."

"How do you know?" Hiccup asked.

"I... sort of had a run in with her today." Eret explained slowly.

"You had a 'run in'?" Hiccup repeated, folding his arms.

"I got separated from Skullcrusher," Eret explained quickly. "I fell into the water, and she pulled me out. She didn't recognise me, except as being a dragon rider, and I never told her my name. I was able to get out of there before her dad turned up."

Hiccup studied Eret's face carefully.

"Did you know her?" He asked in confusion.

"My dad was part of Queen Linden's guard," Eret repeated, nodding. "So, when my mom and I saw him, he'd always be near the Queen, and Sven and Svetta would be there as well."

Hiccup became thoughtful.

"You're coming with me when we meet with Svalgard tomorrow," Hiccup announced, pointing at Eret.

"Me? Why?" Eret began to panic. "If Svalgard, or the others recognise me, remember my father... I _still _have the bounty on my head," he told the Chief urgently. "It covered my _whole_ family! He could order my death on s_ight_ if he wanted."

"That won't happen," Hiccup assured him. "But it would help if we had you there. Who knows, maybe Svetta will recognise you. If she risked her life to pull an apparent stranger from the water...if we can't get through to Svalgard, maybe _she_ can be reached."

~..~..~..~..

Author's note: So, what did you think?

I know, not much Toothless and Flighty in this chapter, but I hope I made up for it with Hiccup and Astrid!

I spend a while going over how to have Hiccup propose to her, trying different speeches and I thought I had something really good but when I went to write it, it flew right out of my head. So, I decided to take that as inspiration for the proposal scene, with Hiccup wanting to make some eloquent speech and completely forgetting what he was going to say, and so just stuck with the most important part: he loved Astrid and wanted to marry her.

I also drew inspiration from the song 'For the Dancing and the Dreaming' from Httyd 2. Hiccup could handle anything life threw at him, as long as he had Astrid with him.

I also thought it was time for Eret to share his story. What do you think of what I wrote for him? Plausible?

I have done some research about Celtic dragons and the chaos dragon is mentioned, and is actually a symbol of regeneration, much like the dragon/serpent that eats its own tail. It's said that the chaos dragon's power fuels revolutions and overthrows governing bodies.

I thought, as Toothless was the most elusive dragon featured in these stories, and when Hiccup found him, it led to the Vikings completely changing their way of life, and in the second movie, Toothless was able to overthrow the control of the 'evil Alpha' and become Alpha himself, I thought the Night Fury was exactly the kind of dragon that could be considered a 'Chaos Dragon'.

Thanks for reading and please leave a review- I'd love some feedback!


	7. The Meeting of Leaders

Author's note: Hi everyone. Here's chapter 7. I hope you like it!

~..~..~..~..

The next morning, Hiccup entered Gothi's to find Astrid gingerly attempting to get out of bed.

"Astrid!" Hiccup was quick to usher her back under the covers. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I want to come with you to meet Svalgard," Astrid answered, panting with the effort.

"You got _shot_ with an_ arrow_ yesterday!" Hiccup admonished. "You were _unconscious_ for most of the day. There is _no way_ you are ready to travel."

"It was one of _them_ who _shot_ me," Astrid spat through gritted teeth. "I want to show them they didn't kill me."

"I'll be happy to tell them that," Hiccup assured her. "But showing up, barely able to stand... is that the impression you want to give them?"

Astrid relaxed slightly as she realised that Hiccup was right: she was in no shape to travel yet, and showing up wounded would not only aggravate her injury, but show Svalgard how much damage he had done.

"Fine," Astrid complied, lying back down on her pillows.

"Really?" Hiccup was surprised and grateful that she wasn't putting up more of a fight.

"Yeah," Astrid smiled. "I want to be fit for battle when I confront that guy who shot me."

"And you will be, Milady," Hiccup kissed her cheek. "Though hopefully, we can avoid war."

~..~..~..~..

Hiccup's envoy ended up consisting of Valka, Snotlout, Eret, Gobber and Fishlegs. Tuffnut and Ruffnut had objected to being left out, but calmed down when Hiccup informed them that they were the island's next defence if the meeting went sour.

He didn't have the heart to tell them the real reason: The twins just had _no _skills when it came to diplomacy, and would more likely incite a war than avoid one.

Inviting Snotlout had even been a stretch, but as Hiccup's cousin, he had the right to accompany him on this mission.

And he seemed to be rising to the challenge well, arriving at the Academy in his best clothes, ready to meet this invading King.

Hiccup had wondered if Eret would need to borrow clothes, as he'd doubted the trapper had anything that would be deemed 'appropriate' for a council of leaders, but Eret had surprised him, arriving in a black tunic with strange silver embroidery around the collar, cuffs and hem. A hooded cloak lined with silver fur hung over his shoulders. "My father's," he'd explained shortly.

"Well, looks like everyone's here," Hiccup commented, looking around at his companions.

"Can we tell them _now_, Hiccup?" Valka asked, unable to contain herself.

"Tell us what?" Snotlout asked.

"Whatever this 'big news' is that happened last night," Eret supplied, gesturing to Hiccup. "Whatever's causing that smile on his face."

Feeling all eyes on him, Hiccup thought he should get this over with. Besides, he was still flying high and was bursting to tell.

"Okay," Hiccup clapped his hands together, readying himself: "I... proposed to Astrid last night."

There was a collective gasp, though no one made a sound, all waiting for the answer.

"And she said 'yes'!"

Cheers went up and Hiccup was soon shaking hands and receiving congratulatory claps on the back.

"It's about time!" Snotlout grasped Hiccup's hand firmly.

"Congratulations, Chief," Eret said sincerely.

"This is so exciting!" Fishlegs exclaimed, wiping his eyes. "I love weddings!"

"Your father would be so happy, Hiccup," Gobber wrapped his former apprentice in a bear hug. "And so am I!"

"Thanks Gobber," Hiccup chocked out as the older Viking squeezed the breath out of him before dropping him.

"Now," Valka smiled as she readjusted her son's clothes after Gobber's assault, "shall we go ensure Berk's safety so that we can start planning the wedding?"

"Great idea," Hiccup was eager to leave.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to take our dragons?" Eret asked as he readied Skullcrusher for flying. "Svalgard could just shoot them from the air before we have a chance to parlay."

"That's what _this_ is for," Fishlegs held up the large white sail they'd borrowed for the occasion. "Tradition and custom state that no one is to be attacked while flying the 'white flag of truce'."

"Let's just hope he doesn't think it means 'surrender'," Gobber interjected, tugging awkwardly at his new shirt.

"At any rate," Hiccup said quickly as he mounted Toothless, adjusting his long cloak so that it didn't interfere with the stirrup that controlled his dragon's tail fin. "The 'white flag' should at least allow us time to land and ask for a council."

"By the way, Gobber," Hiccup told his father's closest friend as the blacksmith mounted his dragon, Grump. "I was wondering if you could help me with something else as well?"

"What do you need, Chief?" Gobber asked happily.

"I need a new tail fin for Toothless," Hiccup explained. "One that will allow him to fly on his own."

"What's wrong with the current tail, Hiccup?" Valka asked as she mounted Cloudjumper, adjusting her newly polished armour as she did so. "I thought you and Toothless loved flying together."

"Oh, we do," Hiccup was quick to answer, "but Toothless loves flying with Flighty." Hiccup gestured to where the smaller Night Fury could be seen, practising her fishing skills over the water. "But he can't fly without me, and..."

"And flying _is_ often part of a dragon's courtship ritual," Fishlegs supplied helpfully.

"So every time Toothless wants to go on a date, he needs _Hiccup_ as a chaperone," Snotlout nodded, seeing the problem. "That would _suck_."

"Exactly," Hiccup granted. "Thank you for summing that up. I already have the design," he added to Gobber. "And I'd usually make it myself, but, now..." Now, Hiccup knew, his schedule made it difficult to find time to work in the forge.

"Don't worry, Hiccup," Gobber assured the young chief. "I'll get right onto it as soon as we get back."

"Thanks," Hiccup smiled. "Now let's go and meet this King Svalgard."

~..~..~..~..

Svalgard, Sven and Brom were in the captain's quarters of the King's ship, a map of the area laid out on the table before them.

"You say the dragons were flying North-west?" Svalguard pressed his son, following the line on the map to a blank area. "We've not gone that far North before."

"That must be where the last of the dragons are hiding, father," Sven said eagerly. "That must be where the fabled Dragon Haven is."

"No human has ever seen Dragon Haven," Brom shook his head from his place by the window. "Dragon Haven is _not_ of this world. Only the most_ powerful_ Chaos dragons can lead the way there."

"And suddenly, we find _two_." Sven reminded his uncle.

"Whatever lies North West of here is _not_ Dragon Haven, Nephew," Brom stepped closer to Sven to press his point. "It is simply _another_ land with its _own_ dragons."

"And these people _ride_ them," Svalgard sneered in distaste before straightening up.

"I care not for some mythical dragon home-land, Brom," Svalgard told his brother-in-law firmly. "And you would do well to rid yourself of fairy stories, Son." He added, casting a stern eye on Sven. It was all his mother's doing, filling his head when he was a child. "All I'm interested in is ridding the world of the _scourge_ of the Dragon and ensuring that _my son_," he placed a hand on Sven shoulder, "has a Great Kingdom to inherit when his time to rule comes."

"Sire!" A voice shouted before a man stumbled into the room. "Dragon riders approaching!"

"Man the catapults!" Svalgard ordered, grabbing his sword as he ran out on deck.

However, he realised the men, rather than attacking, were simply staring up at the sky. Following the line of his men's gaze, Svalgard's eyes widened with surprise as he beheld a small group of dragons, holding a large white cloth spread between them.

"I believe it's a flag of truce, sire," one of the men informed the King.

~..~..~..~

"Well," Fishlegs observed the men crowding the decks of the many ships nervously. "This certainly _does_ look like an armada, Chief."

"They aren't attacking," Snoutlout noted hopefully.

Hiccup swallowed before glancing over at his mother.

"Go on, son," she encouraged. "It's now or never."

Squaring his shoulders, Hiccup made Toothless swoop towards the deck to land gently on the prow of the biggest ship.

"I am the Chief of Berk," he announced as he dismounted onto the deck. "I'm here in peace to make council with King Svalgard."

Svalgard stepped forward.

"I am he," he said shortly.

Hiccup studied the man before him. Tall and broad shouldered, the man was as big as his father had been. Blond hair, fading to grey, was tied back away from his face and his well groomed beard fell to his chest. His stern face was lined with his experiences, which must have been hard, for no warmth seemed to shine from his eyes, which were an icy blue. He was dressed in a tunic of dark blue with a black cloak covering his shoulders. On his hip was a large scabbard which presumably held the broadsword currently in his hand. The circle of gold around his head was his only ornament, and it glinted in the sunlight.

"Well, you certainly look the part," Hiccup commented lightly.

"And you do _not_," Svalgard countered. "So... _young_."

"My father was killed in battle three years ago," Hiccup explained shortly. "I've had to learn quickly. On that note," Hiccup continued, eager to get to the point. "It's tradition that whenever a ruler enters the lands of another, a council must be had to ensure there is no ill will."

"No ill will?" A younger man stepped forward angrily, also dressed in blue, with blond hair and icy blue eyes. "You should have thought of that before you _burnt_ our ships and _shot _my sister."

"Easy son," Svalgard raised a hand and Hiccup realised the younger man, who couldn't have been much older than Eret, was the prince, Sven. His eyes flicked around the deck, expecting the princess to be close as well, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"All we knew at the time was that our fishing boats were being attacked," Hiccup defended. "We had to protect them. Would you not do the same for your own?"

"Yes." Slowly, Svalgard nodded. "I would."

"So, hopefully now, we can do this properly: by having a council to discuss your intentions here," Hiccup gestured to the nearby island. "Shall we do this on solid ground?" He asked. "We'd surely be more comfortable?"

Svalgard's eyes travelled to Toothless before rising to view the other dragons hovering above their heads.

"Oh, don't worry about them, they'll be no trouble," Hiccup hastened to add. "We can tell them to hover while we talk. Except for Toothless here," Hiccup patted his dragon's head. "He can't fly on his own, so he'll just wait outside the tent."

Svalgard appeared calculating as he answered "fine," nodding in agreement. "Land it is. Give us some time to moor our ships."

"Great," Hiccup nodded, trying not to let his relief show. He'd got the king to agree to a council. "We'll see you there soon."

Sven stepped closer to his father as the young chief on the black dragon flew off towards the island.

"Father," he began, puzzled. "What are you doing?"

"Even a King has to answer to customs and tradition, son," Svalgard answered pensively as he watched the group of riders and their dragons descend onto the island. "And, this council may give us a clue as to the best way to gain this new Northern land. Besides," he added, "I want to get the measure of this young chief. Now go get ready," he instructed his son. "We need to show them our power in our presence. And Brom," he called to his brother in law, "see that Svetta is ready and is sent to council as well. This must be a _family_ affair."

~..~..~..~..

Svetta was reading a large book with a black leather cover in concentration when a knock sounded at her door.

Hiding the book quickly at the bottom of her truck, Svetta cleared her throat.

"Who is it?" She called, closing the lid and standing up.

"Only me, Milady," came the answer and Svetta sighed with relief at hearing her handmaiden's voice.

"Come in Cara."

The girl came in quickly, her arms full of clothing, shutting the door awkwardly behind her.

As a royal, Svalgard had always insisted that Svetta had her own maid. And while her first maid had been her nursemaid, a stern woman named Maev, when she passed away a few years ago, her uncle Brom managed to gain the employment of Cara. Svetta had never been _told_ it was Brom, but she could tell that her uncle had been in charge of the staff position, not her father. For Cara, with her dark red hair and emerald green eyes, was clearly a Celt. And, as a daughter of a herbalist, she had taught Svetta all about plant lore. In return, Svetta had taught Cara how to read and use a staff. And though she was barely into her twenties, Cara was one the few people Svetta counted as a friend.

"What's all this?" Svetta asked as Cara laid her ceremonial dress on her bed.

"Your Father's been asked to council by the local chieftain," Cara explained quickly. "We're preparing to meet him now. He's asked that you be present," she held out the dress. "And presentable."

"Oh joy," Svetta stated, but nevertheless, she was intrigued. It wasn't often her father _invited_ her to council...

~..~..~..~..

Hiccup waited nervously on the shore as the King's ship was moored, his envoy and Toothless flanking him while the other dragons circled above their heads.

Men rushed down the gangplank and erected a large tent with great efficiency.

Only when the tent was up and the men cleared the area, did Svalgard and his own envoy, consisting of Brom, Sven, Svetta and three members of his own guard, all dressed in dark blue and black, descend onto the sand.

Hiccup had to admit, the king and his envoy did make an impressive sight. All the men, bar the dark haired one with tattoos on his face were wearing rich material consisting of dark blue and black. The King now wore an ornate gold crown studded with a large sapphire, whereas the younger man, his son, Sven, wore the simple gold band. Both the king and his son wore cloaks of black fur and velvet.

The darker man with the blue tattoos wore, not dark blue, but black and silver, with the silver buckle on his belt showing the emblem of a black dragon. A purple cloak was draped over his shoulders, the clasp of the cloak matching the insignia on his belt.

At the back, Hiccup spotted a young woman, who he assumed must be the princess, Svetta.

Eret swallowed as Svetta's gaze studied their group before landing on him and he tried to keep his face blank as recognition flared in her eyes.

No longer in her tunic and leggings, Svetta wore a long dress of dark blue with black embroidery and sleeves that reached to a point over her middle finger. A long purple cloak, much like her uncle's, was draped over her shoulders also carrying a dragon clasp. Her hair was no longer braided, and instead was coiled and pinned into a bun. She too, wore a band around her head, but hers was a bright, shining silver, engraved with a curious knotted design.

Casting his eyes over the envoy of the young chief, Svalgard wasn't impressed, yet felt himself halt when he spotted a man dressed in black and silver.

Brom had noticed too and his eyes widened in recognition.

"_That_," Svalgard pointed to Eret, "is the uniform of my late Queen's royal guard," he stated, stepping forward. "How did you come by it?"

"What? This?" Eret gestured to his clothes, mentally berating himself. His father had never once mentioned that this was his _uniform_. Eret had only found the clothing after he had died. The memories of his father before their exile had faded to a haze over time.

"I got it from a trader passing through here, a few years ago," Eret answered quickly. "It's not often you come across quality cloth like this in these parts."

"A trader?" Svalgard repeated, sceptical.

"You scattered the royal guard to the four winds, Sire, all with bounties on their heads," Brom spoke up quickly. "I doubt any would actually _keep_ their uniform, as it would identify them. They probably gave their uniforms as payment for passage from the Celtic Isles. It's true: fine cloth like that _would_ be a good payment."

"You were in charge of the royal guard back them, Brom," Svalgard gestured to Eret. "Tell me: do you recognise this man's father in his face?"

Eret gulped as the late Queen's brother looked him over, and tried to keep his face calm, and his chin high.

"No," Brom answered slowly. "Perhaps he takes after his mother?"

Svalgard began to chuckle.

"Perhaps he does," he granted.

"Well, if you're done assessing the men in my envoy," Hiccup spoke up quickly, "perhaps we can talk?"

"Of course," Svalgard granted coolly. "That's why we're here, after all."

"Toothless," Hiccup turned to his dragon as Svalgard led the way into the tent. "Stay out here, okay Bud?"

"Okay guys," Hiccup said aside to his group. "This is a meeting of Chiefs, so please try to stay quiet. Just let me do the talking."

"You got it Chief," Gobber saluted. "Quiet as mice, that's us."

Hiccup sighed.

"I don't believe I've introduced myself properly," Hiccup spoke up as they entered the tent. "My name is Hiccup."

"Hiccup?" Svalgard raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know," Hiccup nodded ruefully. "Viking tradition."

"Hmm," Svalgard stayed non committal as he sat down on the largest chair that had been set up. Brom and Sven sat flanking him, with Svetta on Brom's other side. The King's guard stood behind them.

Hiccup and his envoy were forced to remain standing as there were no more chairs available, and Hiccup had the feeling this was intentional, as it immediately showed Svalgard's group in favour.

"Well, perhaps we should get right to the point," Hiccup began. "What are your intentions here in the lands of Berk, Your Majesty?"

"Simple," Svalgard answered coolly. "I seek to expand my kingdom."

"Then I'm afraid you're out of luck," Hiccup said firmly. "For these lands are already spoken for."

"That hasn't stopped me in the past," Svalgard countered with a smile.

"So I've heard," Hiccup stated flatly. "But I have no wish to start a war."

"Then surrender," Svalgard stated.

"I don't think so," Hiccup countered firmly, refusing to allow this man to intimidate him. "I don't want to start a war because: that wouldn't bode so well for _you_."

"For _me_?" Svalgard's expression was incredulous.

"Yes," Hiccup continued. "Oh, don't get me wrong, your armada is _very_ impressive," he was quick to say. "It's just that, as you know, we have our dragons to protect us, and as your men found out yesterday: wooden boats, big ocean, fire breathing dragons... it's just not a good combination for you. And how far away is your homeland?" Hiccup added. "You would be waiting weeks, maybe even _months_ for new supplies."

"He does have a point, father," Svetta spoke up. "You have your homeland in the West, you have the Celtic Isles and much of the North. While I know you want to make your kingdom great, it may soon become _too big_ to rule effectively."

"_Hold your tongue_, Svetta," Svalgard growled. "If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it."

"You may have dragons on your side, Chief of Berk," Sven spoke up quickly to try and avoid a scene. "But so did the Celtic Isles, which my father conquered easily: forcing the dragons into hiding, fleeing for their lives, lest they _lose_ them."

"Indeed," Sven's comment seemed to have worked at distracting the king from his daughter. "Your dragons won't protect you from war."

"You speak of dragons as if they're a pest-"

"They _are_." Svalgard insisted, talking over Hiccup. "They're a _scourge_ on the land."

"_No_," Hiccup countered passionately. "They are intelligent, amazing creatures that can bring people _together_. From what I understand of the Celtic Isles, dragons were _revered_ while your Queen was alive."

"Until she was killed by the very creatures she loved so much," Svalgard countered and Brom glanced towards his king, frowning, before returning his gaze to the young chief, expressionless once again.

"My condolences," Hiccup said slowly, scrutinising the king's face. "You must have loved her very much to rage war on _all _dragons after her death."

"Dragons are a _disease_," Svalgard stated surely, his expression unmoving. "And they've ruled in this world long enough."

"I can _prove_ to you that they're not," Hiccup countered. "Come with us to Berk," he proposed. "If you spend even a _couple_ of days on our island you'll see that-"

"Not interested," Svalgard interrupted, sounding bored.

Hiccup sighed.

"I thought we were here to negotiate terms for a compromise," he stated.

"I'm only interested in negotiating terms for your surrender." Svalgard informed him. "Or to accept a declaration of war."

"Why does there need to be a war?" Hiccup asked. "We would be happy to make a trade agreement."

"That could be a good compromise," Svetta spoke up again.

"Svetta," the king warned.

"Father, it would be a way for you to earn money off this land without having to rule it," Svetta insisted.

"Think about it, Sire," Brom interjected as Svalgard began turning angrily towards his daughter. "You are only one man, after all. And your Kingdom is already covering a _vast_ expanse of Land. And while you have different councils governing each area, it would be difficult for _any_ one man to rule effectively for long. But a trade agreement with the new lands you invade would ensure wealth continues to flow to your realm without the added need for _another _governing body that could change things to suit their _own_ wishes rather than _yours_."

At his brother in law's words, Svalgard appeared to consider.

"Our ships are the best in the area," Hiccup spoke up, seeing a possibility. "Much more suited to the conditions in these parts than your own."

"No," Svalgard spoke up.

"Okay," Hiccup said slowly. "What would you be interested in trading in? No weapons," he qualified, not liking the idea that Svalgard could turn any traded weapons against them.

"No _trade_," Svalgard clarified. "But what about a _merger_? We could _unite_ our two lands." He gestured to Svetta. "I could offer you the hand of my daughter in marriage."

Svetta's eyes widened in shock and she turned to her father. 'Was _this_ why he'd invited her to council?' she wondered.

"Uh," Caught off guard, Hiccup cleared his throat before speaking. He had to be diplomatic about this.

"An _extremely_ generous offer," Hiccup began carefully. "However, I am already engaged."

"Surely your betrothed can't offer you the same power that a marriage to _my_ daughter could give you?" Svalgard queried incredulously.

"No," Hiccup admitted. "She's offering me something better: her heart."

"You love each other?" Svetta asked.

"We do," Hiccup nodded. "On Berk, you can choose the one you marry."

A wistful smile tugged at Svetta's lips though her eyes were sad.

"So, please accept my apologies for declining the offer," Hiccup finished. "I mean no offence."

"None taken," Svetta said quickly glancing to her father.

"Then it seems we cannot agree to _any_ terms," Svalgard stood up. "And I _do_ take offence at your refusal to wed my daughter."

"Then _why_ not a trade agreement?" Hiccup said quickly.

"_Why_ would I trade with a land that has _insulted_ my family so?" Svalgard gestured to his daughter once again.

"He's already engaged father," Svetta reminded the king. "And I'm _not_ offended."

"_Leave us_, Svetta," Svalgard pointed her towards the tent opening. "You are permitted to go."

Clenching her jaw, Svetta left the company with as much dignity as she could.

"Chief of Berk," Svalgard approached Hiccup slowly. "You have offered me no satisfactory alternative to war and have insulted my family by refusing my daughter's hand." He drew himself up proudly. "Therefore, my intentions will remain the same. I will continue to conquer the northern lands and will travel north west until I reach your home." He smiled coldly. "And it will fall before me like all the others."

Hiccup shook his head.

"You never intended to negotiate anything to avoid war, did you?" Hiccup said quietly. "You're not trying to defend your family's honour, you just want to 'rule the world' just like others who have come here and _failed_."

"I wanted to get the measure of you, _young _chief," Svalgard stated. "And while you have heart," he began to chuckle, "you clearly have no _real_ concept of battle strategy. You rely so much on your precious _dragons_, but they won't be enough to protect you. As I've said: I've dealt with dragon infested lands before."

"You underestimate the strength of dragons and humans when they work together," Hiccup told the King, his voice quiet, but filled with purpose. "The Celtic Isles revered dragons, true, but they were still separate. I don't want a war," Hiccup continued sincerely. "But if you insist on this madness, _Your Majesty_, it will be your own downfall."

"I have an armada that is _undefeated_," Svalgard threatened.

"And we have our dragons," Hiccup stated matter-of-factly.

~..~..~..~..

"Well, that went terribly wrong," Gobber stated as their group left the tent, leaving Svalgard and his envoy inside.

"He wasn't interested in preventing a war," Hiccup stated grimly. "I doubt anything we could've done would've made a difference."

"Well they're going to get a big, fiery hot, welcome if they decide to invade Berk," Snotlout vowed punching his fist into his palm.

"It was the _King_ that was the problem though," Eret pointed out. "Svetta, Sven, _and _Brom seemed open to the idea of a trade agreement."

"Yes," Valka agreed hopefully. "And Svalgard seemed to listen to his son, at least. Maybe if we can reach one of them, they can convince Svalgard to change his mind?"

Hiccup had been looking around for Toothless, and spotted him by the shoreline, splashing playfully in the water. Svetta stood above the tide line, watching pensively.

"And we may just have out way in," Hiccup said hopefully.

Svetta watched the black dragon splashing and gambolling in the water before her, seemingly oblivious to her presence.

This was one of the great and terrible Chaos dragons who Father had said killed her mother in cold blood?

"His name's Toothless," a voice remarked and Svetta turned to see the young Chief of Berk approaching, followed by his small envoy.

"I take it your talk with my father didn't end well," she commented, her eyes travelling over the grim faces, once again landing on the man in black. The uniform of her mother's royal guard...Svetta took a breath. She'd seen her uncle's reaction. He had recognised him. So that must mean Svetta should too... but she had only been a young child at the time and her memory had faded.

"You're father has a very..." Hiccup struggled to find the right word. "_Focused_ mind."

Svetta nodded.

"_Obstinate_, is a word often used to describe him," she smiled. "Though never to his face, of course."

Toothless spotted Hiccup and bounded over to his friend.

"Hey Toothless," Hiccup greeted fondly, scratching his dragon under the chin. "Thanks for waiting, Bud."

"Why do you call him 'Toothless'?" Svetta asked curiously, eying the rows of sharp teeth lining the dragon's jaw, only at that moment for Toothless to retract his teeth back into his gums to allow Hiccup to wrestle gently with his mouth without injury.

"Oh," Svetta remarked. "That's why."

"Do you want to touch him?" Hiccup gestured to his dragon, but Svetta shrank back.

"No," she stated shakily.

"Why are we talking to her? " Snotlout spoke up. Hiccup had told him to stay silent in the tent, but was going to be heard now. "Don't forget Hiccup, she was aiming an _arrow_ at you yesterday."

"I wasn't aiming at him," Svetta objected. "I was aiming at _him_," she pointed at Toothless.

"Why?" Hiccup asked.

"Father's orders," Svetta answered. "Any dragon spotted by anyone under the Svalgard flag must be destroyed." She quoted. "For the dragon's very existence is against the order of the King."

"What a stupid law," Snotlout argued.

"But why?" Hiccup asked Svetta. "What does your father have against dragons?"

"He says he became incensed after the Dark dragons killed Mother," Svetta answered slowly. "However, their marriage was arranged, they barely knew each other. And whenever he tells me I take after my mother, he always makes it sound derogatory."

"What do you think?" Hiccup pressed.

"I don't know," Svetta replied. "I've asked him about it many times, but he always avoids the question. He hates me asking questions,' she muttered.

"I meant about the dragons," Hiccup clarified. "You say you were aiming your arrow at Toothless, as it was your father's orders. But what do _you_ think about dragons?"

Svetta swallowed, turning her gaze on Toothless, who stood calmly beside his friend.

"Have you ever killed a dragon?" Hiccup pressed.

"No," Svetta admitted slowly. "My brother has. But..._ I've_ never killed a dragon."

"Why's that, I wonder?" Hiccup caught her eye curiously.

"My mother loved dragons," Svetta began. "She was always telling my brother and I stories about them. She said they were wise, powerful beings who came to this world from another. For nothing in our world came close to the amazing spirit of the dragon, so surely they had to have come from another world: Dragon Haven, she called it." Svetta took a breath, tilting her head curiously at Toothless, who copied the motion.

A smile tugged at Svetta's mouth.

"I can't remember much from the night my mother was killed," she admitted. "Though I was there. All I can remember is shouting, running and bright light. My father said the dragons killed mother, though my uncle Brom has never told me what _he_ saw that night." Svetta frowned. "As I've got older, the more I'm realising that not everything is what it seems. I don't know what to believe anymore. My mother said the dragons were powerful beings to be respected and loved. My father says the dragons are mindless beasts that destroy without conscience. Yet I look at him playing in the tide," Svetta gestured to Toothless pensively, "and I have trouble seeing this...playful dragon as a mindless killer."

"I'm not sure about dragons coming from another world," Hiccup began slowly, "but I can tell you that dragons _are_ amazing creatures to be respected and loved."

Svetta glanced at Hiccup before turning her gaze back on Toothless.

"You made a proposal that if we came to your island, you could teach us to see dragons the way you do," she remarked slowly. "Is that offer still open?"

Hiccup's eyes widened with hope.

"_Yes_," he said earnestly. "If you come to Berk, Princess, we'd be happy to show you how we see dragons. Perhaps remind you of how your mother saw them," he added gently.

Shooting a glance at her father's council tent seemed to solidify the princess' resolve to make a decision and Svetta squared her shoulders, wincing slightly as her wound was pulled. The cloak hid the bandages nicely, but it still pained her.

"I will inform my father that I will be travelling with you on a diplomatic mission," she told the chief. "However, I think he may be in council for some time."

"What do you expect us to do, wait?" Snotlout asked sardonically.

"Here," Eret stepped forward and passed her the horn he kept hooked on his belt. "You can blow on this when you're ready to be picked up. Skullcrusher and I will come get you."

Svetta raised an eyebrow but she claimed the horn.

"Fine," she agreed carefully.

"Great," Hiccup was now hopeful. "You come to the island as a diplomatic guest, and we will teach you about our dragons. Then, hopefully," he added, "you can change your father's mind before he starts a war."

"I honestly don't know how much I can change my father's mind," Svetta admitted. "But I can possibly influence my brother and uncle, who can in turn influence Father."

Hiccup nodded.

"I'll take that," he held out a hand and slowly, Svetta took it.

"We have an agreement."

~..~..~..~..

Author's note: So, what do you think?

I know, not a lot of action in this chapter, but I thought it important to give a glimpse into how everybody saw things.

The way Svalgard and his envoy dressed I chose deliberately. Black and blue are Svalgard's colours whereas black and purple were the Queen's colours. I wanted to show how Svalgard is trying to make Sven into his image, by dressing him up like the king. Brom, while having allied with Svalgard after his sister's death, I wanted to show as still seeing himself as a Celt, separate from Svalgard and trying to stay faithful to his roots as much as possible. Svetta, on the other hand, while she does want her father's approval, is more like her mother. And Brom sees that, and so helps her whenever he can. Svetta wears both blue and purple alongside black to show the conflict she is eternally struggling over.

Svalgard I wanted to also show being a bully in this chapter. He wants a war to expand his kingdom, which is his main motivation. But with Hiccup wanting to avoid war, Svalgard had to create a reason to attack him. He didn't want to make a trade agreement, for it would mean that Berk would not be his, yet if he married his daughter to the chief, the land would be his by marriage, much like the Celtic isles had been. However, upon finding Hiccup was already engaged put a dampener on that plan and he couldn't see any other way to ensure a takeover without war and so used the 'insult against his family' as just cause.

I've got a couple of ideas on how this story may end, but have yet to make a decision. I've put hints of both in this chapter through, so hopefully I'm covered either way.

Please leave a review. I greatly appreciate feedback.


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